Southern Cameroons: Killing Spree, Burning of Civilians Alive on the Rise, Nacho Massacre Provokes Outrage

There continue to be very disturbing developments from Nacho Junction in the restive Southern Cameroons city of Bamenda. Ten people were reportedly killed at the crossroads in Nacho after receiving a barrage of bullets this Sunday, July 16.

Eyewitness accounts narrate that a group of unidentified gunmen dressed in Cameroon military fatigue stormed the Abangoh neighborhood and pulled out some of the residents from their homes and drove them to the Nacho junction where they were ordered out of the car and sprayed with bullets. Two other people who were drinking at a nearby beer palour also got fatally attained.

Among the dead were two women. One of them died with her husband from the same home leaving behind three children. All the residents at the Nacho and Atuh-Azire neighborhoods remain in complete confusion, pain, and mourning. It is likely that more people could die from the rampant shooting as people continue to search for loved ones.

A resident of Nacho Junction who spoke to Timescape Magazine on the phone on condition of anonymity said, “I cannot independently confirm who the perpetrator of such a heinous act is, but the men who launched the assault were dressed in Cameroon military fatigue, wielding automatic rifles”.

The incident came two days after five young men were killed in the same neighborhood during a Cameroon army raid. This takes the number of deaths to fourteen in three days. 

In a press release, the Cameroon military of defense stated that “A group of about a dozen secessionists, deceptively dressed in military gear similar to those of the army and carrying automatic rifles, gathered a few innocent citizens before firing heavily and indiscriminately at them, leading to the death of a few customers comfortably seated around a table”.

The Cameroon defense military’s account accusing the Southern Cameroons pro-independence groups has been roundly rejected by Ambazonian liberation movements that have maintained that “What happened follows a pattern of the modus operandi of the Cameroon colonial administration in its genocidal campaign in Southern Cameroons”.

The couple that was killed among the nine were, Mr. Simplice Longtsi Tsomene, born on June 15, 1986, and Ms. Tanga Helene Raissa, born on July 18, 1998. The couple owned a phone shop at the Old-Treasury Street in Bamenda. Both were from Mbouda, Bamboutos division of the Western Region of Cameroon. They leave behind three children, two boys and a girl. The oldest is 7 and the youngest is 2. Two of the nine killed were citizens of the former UN Trust Territory of British Southern Cameroons.

The pro-independence war that has been raging on in the Southern Cameroons since 2017 has claimed over 5000 deaths according to Western based rights organizations, but local NGOs and the clergy put the figure at well over 15,000.

An audio message making the rounds on social media and attributed to the pro-independence forces warns of many more such attacks, purportedly by the Cameroon military on citizens of the Republic of Cameroon living in the former UN Trust Territory of British Southern Cameroons, in efforts to attract sympathy and label their freedom fighters as terrorists. The voice warns “Ambazonian citizens to avoid any place heavily populated or frequented by citizens of Cameroon because you can become part of the collateral damage”.

The Archbishop of Bamenda, Andrew Nkea joined several other national and international actors to condemn the killings on innocent and unarmed civilians.