Suspected Amba fighters invade, spill blood in West Region again!.

 Some of the victims of the attack, as seen through gory images that have gone viral on social media, were elderly persons, women and youth. 

One of the young men killed in the course of the attack, we gathered, is from neighbouring Baligashu village in Balikumbat Subdivision, Ngoketunjia Division of the troubled North West Region. 

The young man, whose name we could not immediately get, is said to have arrived the market early yesterday sell his goods before meeting his untimely end. 

We also gathered that some inhabitants of Bamenyam were forcefully whisked to the unknown by the hoodlums masquerading as Anglophone freedom fighters. 

At least three shops, houses around the market and a vehicle are reported to have been burned to ashes by the gunmen. 

The gunmen are also said to have looted businesses in the market and made away with an undisclosed number of motorbikes.

The suspected Amba fighters are reported to have immediately vamoosed when after sensing that security officers were approaching the scene.

Meantime, it remains unclear what must have caused yesterday’s attack. 

Worth recalling is the fact that Bamenyam village, has since the crisis in the two English-speaking Regions morphed into an armed conflict, come under attack several times from suspected separatist fighters from the North West Region. 

Manhunt to track perpetrators

The incident is said to have occurred at the time the Governor of the West Region, Awa Fonka Augustine, was chairing a meeting in Baham in the Upper Plateau Division, to assess the security situation of the Region, ahead of end-of-year festivities. 

Governor Awa Fonka is reported to have immediately dispatched the Senior Divisional Officer, SDO of Bamboutos Division, David Dibango, to the incident scene. 

The civil administrator was accompanied to Bamenyam by the Commander of the 5^th Joint Military Region, Brigadier General Bouba Dobekreo. 

The authorities, after assessing the situation after the attacked, announced a manhunt by defence and security officers to track down the predators of the attack that has left the entire community in mourning. 

The administrative and security officials reassured the population of government’s determination to secure them and their property. 

They also enjoined the population to step up collaboration with defence and security forces to put an end to separatist incursions into the Region. 

Flashback on suspected Amba atrocities in Bamenyam

Last September 2, two young girls, aged 15 to 20, who were students of Government High School Bamenyam, were abducted by suspected separatist fighters from the North West Region.

The incident sparked outburst from the population as the vigilante group of the Bamenyam community carried out a search in the border localities with the North West Region. 

The entire village had rallied for a protest during which irate population mounted road blocks on the Bamenyam-Awing stretch of road. 

It blocked circulation on the stretch of road linking Bamenyam in Bamboutos Division of the West Region to Awing, Baligashu, Balikumbat and Baligansi in the North West Region for three days.

The SDO of Bamboutos Division, David Dibango, had promised the disgruntled youth that peace and security would be restored in the area and at the borders to the North West Region. 

Also, an attack by gunmen, believed to be Ambazonia fighters, had left a soldier dead and others injured in Bamenyam, early this year when over 30 heavily armed men on motorbikes stormed the locality.

Many other border localities in Njitapon, in Kouoptamo Subdivision, Galim Subdivison and Babadjou Subdivision bordering the North West Region have come under attack from Amba fighters. 

Similar of such attacks have been recorded in other areas of the West Region especially in Menoua and Bamboutous Divisions that share borders with the restive South West Region.