After fresh clashes between Bamoun, Tikars: Bamoun Sultan calls for peace, social cohesion.

Sultan Nabil Mbombo Njoya made the call after his kinsmen attacked the Tikar ethnic group in Magba, destroying and burning shops said to belong to Tikars and killing at least five people. The said incidents are said to have taken place on the night of Thursday August 9, 2024.

Speaking during a rally that brought together sons and daughters of the Noun Division, the Bamoun Sultan challenged them to give peace a chance.

He warned against taking laws into their hands while insisting that only government authorities are competent enough to handle the situation on-going in Magba.

The Guardian Post gathered that the fresh clashes between the Bamoun and the Tikars, followed a ban by the traditional ruler of Tikars, of the holding of the 2024 Nguon Festival on their territory.

The decades-long Nguon Festival refers to a series of rituals between the Bamoun monarch and his people. 

Aimed at promoting dialogue, harmony and peace, the rituals are observed over a period of three days by the Bamoun community.

Sources familiar with the incident are quoted as having disclosed that from time immemorial, the Tikars have always refused to be identified as Bamoun people and refused to submit to the Sultan.

While the Bamoun have wanted the festival to be commemorated by the Tikars, the latter have resisted and this has led to tensions between the two communities. Last week’s clashes between members of the two communities isn’t the first.

Nabil Mbombo Njoya: Bamoun Sultan

In February 2023, a clash erupted between the two peoples, after the King of the Tikars, His Majesty Soule Ngamon III was undressed in public and molested by guards of Sultan Nabil Mbombo Njoya for referring to the sultan as “my son”.

The Bamoun monarch was on a tour to some localities in the Noun when he made a stopover at the Magba traditional ruler’s palace. Following the incident, elite of Tikars are said to have retaliated, barricading roads and disrupting traffic. 

Irate Bamoun indigenes are said to have invaded the palace of the Magba traditional ruler, destroying and partially burning part of the palace. It took the intervention of the Governor of the West Region, Awa Fonka Augustine, for peace to reign between both ethnic groups.

The super scale civil administrator had summoned a crisis meeting and after listening to both rulers, called on them to bury the hatchet and turn to a new leave. 

This story was first published in The Guardian Post issue N0:3197 of Monday August 12, 2024