In memory of forgotten troops!.

They offered their lives for the interest of national unity, peace and tranquility in the North West and South West Regions; where insecurity has been the order, compelling the government to declare the Regions as "risky".

The Guardian Post expresses deepest sympathies and heartfelt condolences to the bereaved families. They are not the first members of the forces to die in defence of fatherland, which of course is their sacred responsibility and duty.

Uncomfirmed reports circulating on social media claim over 1,700 members of the defence and security forces have died in a senseless conflict, reported to have taken the lives of over 6,000 compatriots, most of them innocent civilians.

Just when the vivacious and enthusiastic preparations for the October 12 presidential election are on the fast lane, separatist militias once again struck members of the defence and security forces, who should provide security to the population.

Unconfirmed media reports that have not been refuted by the military hierarchy, pointed out that an army patrol vehicle stumbled on an Improvised Explosive Device, IED, at Malende, in Muyuka Subdivision of Fako Division. It exploded and killed seven military officers on the spot. Two were seriously injured and one later died on Saturday, September 6, 2025.

The same day in Wututu- Limbe, a gendarme officer serving at the Bojongo Gendarmerie Post, who was on his way to carry out a routine check on the highway, was ambushed and killed by hooligans, who identified themselves in a video as members of the "Ambazonia Army in Fako County."

In an online video, one of the assailants is heard saying: “When Fabiano says don’t walk around, you said who is Amba, have you seen.?”

Nine soldiers were killed in one day. No official statement from the government. No condolences. Why?

Is it to pretend that the bloody conflict has ended? Is it to conceal the insecurity or make people forget that it exists? Does hiding a problem provide a solution?

It cannot be hidden with the deception of normalcy, especially with the stem of the presidential election getting to boiling point.

Prof Maurice Kamto, ex-president of MRC who flirted briefly with MANIDEM to run for the October 12 poll and was rejected, is so far the only politician who has commented on last weekend’s carnage in Fako Division.

In what he called a "declaration on the carnage of Malende, Muyuka, South West Region and the dirty, forgotten civil war", he wrote: "On several occasions, official propaganda announced that this deadly and devastating war was behind us…it existed only in the minds of ill-intentioned people, who are hostile to the homeland. Unfortunately, the reality is staring at us in the face, sad and violent. This civil war, which only persists because of the arrogant refusal of the authorities to end it through genuine inclusive political dialogue, continues to kill many civilians and members of the defense and security forces, with the total indifference of those who run the country".

While offering his condolences to the bereaved families, he added that: “…it would be an opportunity to equally extend it to the thousands of civilians and military already fallen in this war, the emotional feelings of the Cameroonian people as a whole". 

While the nation mourns not just the nine soldiers but thousands of others before them, what politicians pressing the throttle for a failing military solution must learn is that in this era of information and communication technologies, "nothing is hidden under the sun".

Denial, even to comment by the government or visit the scene, may be perceived as refusing the existence of a conflict.

But as Jim Caroll, renowned global motivation speaker writes, “they are just skillful manipulators of the truth, avoiders of the reality of problems they face, while all around disruption unfolds around at a furious pace."

The hallowing murder in Fako,  last weekend, coupled with the disruption of school resumption in the two Anglophone Regions, yesterday by perpetual "Monday ghost town" protests, should be a reflection of the country's darkest period of eight years of a senseless and fatal blood spilling conflict that can't be denied, hidden or forgotten without a solution.

Last weekend’s killings in Fako Division, coming on the eve of the October 12 presidential election, should invite politicians, especially those in government, to contemplate on the human capacity for resilience, amidst an overwhelming adversity in the two English-speaking Regions.

Whatever the case, they should recognise and pay tributes to those dying to keep the country "one and indivisible" and the innocent caught by stray bullets.

This article was first published in The Guardian Post Edition No:3559 of Tuesday September 09, 2025