Editorial: Murder in Limbe nightclub one too many!.

According to media reports, the Chief Sergeant, armed with a well loaded sniper M21 rifle, stormed the nightclub and started shooting indiscriminately. He killed a man in the devilish act. 

Several others seriously injured were rushed to nearby medical facilities for treatment.

The motive of the gruesome assault, as the suspect is reported to have said after interrogation, is that it was a revenge riposte for his friend killed in the North West Region, by separatist fighters.

The suspect was arrested and taken to the Limbe Gendarmerie for interrogation. The Guardian Post looks up to a speedy and public trial to ensure justice is done and seen to have been done, to deter a repeat of such macabre incident.

It isn't just in Limbe that civilians who go to drinking spots to have fun in a relaxed atmosphere with friends and family, have been killed.

There was another bizarre murder in a popular government hotel in Bamenda. On February 22, 2022, there were media reports that "Soldier shots, kills two in Bamenda".

North West Governor, Adolf Lele L'Afrique, in a statement, had said: "...the two were shot dead by a soldier on duty at Ayaba Hotel, after a dispute...The three were drinking together. It is alleged that the soldier and the victims were acting under the influence of alcohol".

The Governor also said the soldier, who reportedly perpetrated the shooting, had been apprehended and placed under custody. There have since not been any public information about the trial.

It is not just in drinking places that innocent civilians have been murdered by people who are supposed to protect them. On the highway, there have been cases of innocent civilians being shot at check points for failing to stop at the command of the officers.

In one sordid incident in Buea, a solder missed shooting a driver, but a five-year old child was shot and killed. Angry onlookers regrettably took the laws into their hands and administered mop justice on the soldier by lynching him.

Such cheerless incidents have been occurring repeatedly, mainly in the North West and South West Regions, which have been mired in a bloody conflict for some seven years and still counting. As a result, macabre atrocities are being committed. 

Corpses have been displayed in public places in Batibo and Kumba, by members of the defence and security forces.

Barbaric separatist fighters have exhibited heads of their victims in public. Just last week, they murdered some five gendarmes in Manyu Division of the South West Region; roasted their corpses and the car they were reportedly on patrol with.

Such horror, satanic and recurring atrocities, have been posted in videos that are trending on the social media.

Research has explained that such atrocities cause Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, PTSD, especially in soldiers. It is a mental health condition that is triggered by a terrifying event, either experiencing it or witnessing it.

Experts say "most people who go through traumatic events may have nightmares and severe anxiety, as well as uncontrollable thoughts about the event".

The research explains that some patients of the disorder turn to suicide, while others take revenge on innocent people.

In their research work, The Psychological Costs of War: Military Combat and Mental Health, authors, Resul Cesur, Joseph Sabia, and Erdal Tekin, reports that when they "witness the death or wounding of a civilian or a coalition member, they are at substantially increased risk of suicide or thoughts of suicide, depression, revenge and PTSD".

The Guardian Post is in no way suggesting that the murder at a nightclub in Limbe would have been as a result of post-traumatic stress, a health issue which cannot be ruled out in Cameroon, given the mutilation of corpses, burning people in their houses and burying some alive as has been sorrowfully observed in the two English-speaking Regions, since the dirty fighting started more than seven years ago.

But is displaying corpses not to instill fear and inflict traumatic stress on people? Have those fighting in the two Regions, including others battling Boko Haram, been undergoing post-traumatic stress counselling?

A nightclub is one of the few places nightjar fans do not expect any mortality, especially from those in uniform. 

It is an aberration in madness, which the government most address through counselling and give respect to corpses, rather than displaying them as some trophy of victory.

We rest our case!