Rejuvenation of separatist fighters!.

For the South West and North West Regions, peace was gradually returning. But a vicious lockdown by separatist fighters prevented full back to school activities in the two Regions, despite reinforcement of security.

As some of the leaders of the separatist movements are propagating in the social media “nearly all who started the fighting in 2016,” have been killed, but there is “rejuvenation” as observed on the ground.

A gendarme who was stationed to provide security at NFC Bank, in the Molyko densely populated neighbourhood of Buea, was fatal attacked. His demise was attributed to separatist fighters, bringing the number of security personnel killed within a few hours in the Anglophone Regions to two.

Media reports indicated that another tragedy occurred the same day in Bamenda, Mezam Division, in the North West Region; when his colleague assigned to guard the Bafut Union Credit, was also killed last Thursday afternoon.

Earlier on the night of September 13 to 14, 2026, seven people from same family compound in Ngwenfon, Bangourain, in the Noun Division of West Region, according to reports published on Wednesday, September 16, were abducted. A ransom of 10 million FCFA is being demanded.

The abductors were described in media reports as armed men, suspected to be separatist fighters from the North West Region, although their individual identities have not been publicly established. Security sources cited after the kidnapping, said efforts are under way to locate the victims and apprehend those responsible.

Bangourain borders the North West Region and has previously experienced incursions, kidnappings and ransom demands linked to armed separatist groups.

The atrocities just this September also include three innocent civilians and a separatist fighter killed as the violence escalated. Chinese News Agency reporting on September 13, 2026, quoted security sources as saying “…separatist fighters opened fire on a vehicle on a highway in Ekona, a locality in the South West Region, on Saturday, killing the driver and two passengers”.

"They were driving to Kumba when the separatist terrorists killed them. The terrorists said they disrespected a lockdown order. Government forces pursued the fighters after the shooting, leading to a clash that left one separatist fighter dead and several others injured”.

The diabolical trend is indicative that the hooligans are rejuvenating. They started some 10 years back, with fighters estimated by United States based Robert Lansing Institute, a Think Tank, had estimated that the number of active Anglophone separatist fighters were between 2,000 and 4,000.

But some of them concede they have all been killed. At one point, government narrative was that they were just a “handful remaining,” after the liquidation of their dreaded ‘Generals’ like No Pity, Field Marshal, etc.

The latest macabre killing of civilians and two members of the defence and security forces in the two regional capitals that are supposed to be the most secured in the two restive Regions and incursion into the West Region has reignited the insecurity issue in the two Regions in particular and nation as a whole.

At one moment when peace and security are on the horizon, gloomy news of another murder spreads fear. It does not matter if the victim is in uniform, a civilian, or a separatist fighter, or even a “terrorist”. They are all Cameroonians.

Some are fighting for separation, others are for federation, while many, driven by abject poverty, are just robbers using it to fend for a living.

As a solution, the government in 2018 created the Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration, DDR, rehabilitation centres in Tiko and Bamenda for Anglophone separatist fighters who lay down their arms. Just under 800 have heeded the persistent appeals. Others prefer to die fighting.

The Major National Dialogue, MND, which was the government’s last joker, has not brought peace and a military operation on which the regime banks on, has, based on experience in other countries and research, never ended what has been classified as an asymmetric warfare.

Despite all the assurances of safety during school resumption, several schools in the North West and South West Regions have not started. The lockdown and ghost towns continue.

The government, civilians and separatist warlords suffer the brunt, though spilling blood benefits some people who should know that guns solve no problem.

Henry Kinssinger former Secretary of State of the United States which is the world’s most powerful country was not wrong. He stated in his 1969 Foreign Affairs Essay that: "The guerrilla wins if he does not lose. The conventional army loses if it does not win."

As research has pointed out “defence and security forces fight a physical and military war aiming for decisive destruction, while guerrillas fight a political and psychological war aiming for endurance” which is why separatist fights have not been wiped out in 10 tantalising years for the people of the North West and South West regions.

As The Guardian Post, one of the affected corporate body has said before, Yaounde needs to think twice. It should drop a military campaign as the separatist fighters claim they have been in a microscopic process in which dead cells regenerate to restore normal function, which is why despite of their number “liquidated,” they still remain a threat in the Anglophone Regions and spilling to the West Region.

This article was first published in The Guardian Post Edition No:3923 of Monday September 28, 2026