Armed conflict in NW, SW: Gov’t launches manhunt for lady suspected of having links with separatists.

It should be noted that as the crisis in the North West and South West Regions, which long escalated into an armed conflict, continues to take new twists, the government, through the defence and security forces, has stepped up its pursuit for those suspected to be separatist activists, others accused of supporting and collaborating with the Ambazonia separatist fighters and those who are sympathetic to the separatist cause.

In this light, security and defence forces have been indiscriminately arresting all those suspected to be having links with separatists, collaborators and sympathisers.

Sources say the arrested persons are being tortured and detained under inhumane conditions. Some are reported to have died in detention, while others have simply gone missing, but their families suspect that they may have been killed.

Meanwhile, as the gun battles between the military and separatist fighters persist, some villagers in some communities have been forced to flee into the forest, for fear of being caught in the crossfire. 

The separatist fighters have also been kidnapping, torturing and killing those whom they suspect are giving information about them to the military. They have also been forcefully recruiting young men and women to join in their fight for independence of what they have named Republic of Ambazonia. Some of those who do not collaborate with the separatist fighters have been abducted and killed, with some beheaded.

The defence and security forces are searching for Naomi Agbor Tambe, because it is alleged that it has emerged that she had links with separatist fighters in Meme Division of the South West Region. Though we gathered that Agbor had years back been kidnapped many times by separatist fighters, who are also reported to have killed her grandfather, the defence and security forces, nonetheless, believe that she was instead collaborating and supporting the Ambazonia separatist fighters.

It is also said that years back, Agbor had been displaced because of the armed conflict, fled to the forest where she lived with other displaced persons, before resurfacing in Kumba. However, she later vamoosed and since then her whereabouts is not known.

As the defence and security forces are now hunting for Naomi Agbor Tambe, if arrested, she will be tried in a military tribunal, under the 2014 anti-terrorism law, whose maximum punishment is the death sentence. That is if she is not killed outright, like many others, who have been victims of extrajudicial killings, within the context of the armed conflict in North West and South West Regions.

The crisis in a nutshell 

It should be recalled that the Anglophone crisis, something that pundits say had been brewing for several years, boiled over in 2016, when Common Law lawyers in the North West and South West Regions went on strike. They were demanding for the return of the federal system of government, redeployment of Civil Law Magistrates back to Civil Law Courts in French Cameroon, among other grievances. 

Not long after, teachers in the North West and South West regions also went on strike, demanding for the redress of several issues concerning the English sub system of education. 

Things, however, got worse when Anglophones in both regions, who had been fed up with the unfavourable political and economic situation of the country, the use of French as the dominant and official language, and the marginalisation of the Anglophones, joined the strike. 

The situation later escalated into an armed conflict when some Anglophones picked up arms, fighting for the independence of country they have named Ambazonia.

The armed conflict has left thousands, both civilians and security and defence forces dead, some 700,000 people displaced with some living in bushes, while over 50,000 have fled to neighbouring Nigeria, where they are living as refugees.

Many houses, and even whole villages, have been burnt down in the crisis-hit regions. 

The separatist leader of the self-declared Republic of Ambazonia, Sisiku Ayuk Tabe, and nine other close associates of his, who were arrested in Nigeria and extradited to Cameroon, are currently at the Kondengui maximum security prison where they are serving life sentences. They were sentenced by the Yaounde military tribunal in August 2019 on charges including terrorism and secession. 

Many other activists such as Mancho Bibixy, Penn Terrence, Tsi Conrad, among others, are serving jail terms at the Kondengui prison.

While the Anglophone crisis continues to escalate, international organisations and other western powers have called on the government to address the root cause through genuine and inclusive dialogue.

This article was first published in The Guardian Post No 3728 of Wednesday March 11, 2026