Kumba: Military, Amba crossfire leaves orphaned IDP girl dead!.

Eyewitness accounts have it that the victim, Ajeck Hilda, was hit by a stray bullet that perforated their house in the early hours of yesterday. This was during a shootout between the military and suspected Amba fighters.

The incident occurred at the security checkpoint in the Mile I neighbourhood of Kumba I Subdivision. 

The Form Three student of Government High School, GHS Kake, we gathered, had lost her father in 2017, to the armed conflict in the North West and South West Regions. She was due to begin this academic year in Form Four. 

Suspected Amba fighters are reported to have attacked the security checkpoint leading to sporadic gun exchanges.

Bullets fired during the shootout is reported to have pierced through their building, constructed with wooden material and severely wounded her. 

Sources say the gunshots, which lasted over an hour, woke locals from sleep in the Mile I neighbourhood. 

The deceased student was said to have been living in the plank house in Mile I with her mother after fleeing from Kake II village when the crisis morphed into an armed conflict. 

It is not yet clear where the bullets came from but family members and neigbours confessed hearing loud screams from the direction of the house where the late Hilda lived. 

When they rushed to her room, it was discovered that bullets had perforated the plank house, hitting her on the abdomen.

Late Hilda’s mother summoned courage to take her daughter to the mortuary in the company of close friends, family members and neighbours.

The incident has been described by keen observers of the crisis as a calculated attempt by gunmen to thwart the smooth kick off the new school year and enforce their fruitless school boycott calls. 

Meme SDO consoles family 

The Senior Divisional Officer, SDO, for Meme, Chamberlin Ntou'ou Ndong, rushed to the Kumba Regional Hospital mortuary where he consoled the mother of the deceased and other family members.

He called for calm, assuring that security forces are at work to track down those at the origin of the shootings. He later convened an emergency security meeting to evaluate the state of affairs in Kumba and Meme Division as a whole.

The said incident, which occurred on the day of school resumption, has left many parents in Meme Division in panic and fear of the unknown. 

Most schools across Kumba Central witnessed the effective presence of administrative staff and teachers but learners where absent for fear of the unknown. 

Separatists fighters, it should be said, have since 2016 been fighting to enforce school boycott calls as a means to push across their agenda of creating a separate state from the present day North West and South West Regions. 

Head teachers killed in Belo

In yet another incident, carried out days to the start of the new school year, gunmen, men believed to Amba fighters, on Saturday September 2, killed two head teachers who were serving in Mbessa, a village in Belo Subdivision, Boyo Division of the North West Region.

Fonjang Eric Diense, Head Teacher of Government Primary School Soalam and his colleague, Ndim John Budi, were killed while returning from Belo where they had taken part in a sector conference to prepare for the new school year. 

Online news site, Mbessa Eye, reported that the two head teachers were ambushed around the Ijim Mountain Forest by the gunmen who later killed them. 

The Mbessa community, the education family in Boyo in particular and across the country in general have been mourning the two pedagogues since their brutal killing.

Five persons kidnapped in Weh

Still in connection with the ongoing armed conflict in the two restive Anglophone Regions, at least five persons are reported to have been kidnapped in Weh, a village in Menchum Division of the North West Region.

The Guardian Post gathered that majority of those kidnapped are businesspersons operating in Weh.

The kidnapped individuals include Akwa Timothy, Kum Ernest (a shop owner), Kum-Nkoh (bar manager at Hilltop Quarter), Mughe Caroline and Mughe Christabel.

One of the persons, a certain Pa Che Lang, said to have resisted being whisked to the unknown by the gunmen, is reported to have been shot in the leg. The victim is said to be currently receiving treatment at a health facility. 

Details of why the said persons were kidnapped still remain sketchy. It is not equally known which group is responsible for the act. However, accusing fingers are pointed at Amba fighters operating in the area. 

Meanwhile, some individuals arrested in connection to the kidnap incident are being interrogated by security forces. 

By Ndimbie Usman & Njingang Godwin