Editorial: Celebrating Unity Day with blood of disunity.

They met their death as they walked from the council chambers to the nearby ceremonial ground, defying fear from the diabolical agents of disunity, who had proscribed the commemoration in the North West and South West Regions and imposed a lockdown to enforce their order.

Their death not only dominated media headlines but overshadowed the theme of the celebration.

The vicious attack came a week after others in Akwaya, Manyu Division of the South West Region, where the Brigade Commander of Akwaya; Moussa, and Warrant Officer; Fotso, were killed in Eyumojock; still in the same Division, where five gendarmes were ambushed and also murdered.

Amid such barbarism and murders, it was understandable why the emphasis on this year's celebration was on unity and peace. Unity is being threatened since the last seven years, and still counting, by separatist fighters who want to divide the country.

There has been no peace since then, even if some government spin doctors want to be pied pipers who offer strong but delusive assurances of "normalcy" in the two Regions they have ironically classified as "risky zones".

The CPDM mayor of Belo took the risk. He was not just a municipal authority. He promoted football, which is a uniting factor.

For his part, the Inspector of Basic Education, Dr Anghi Aaron Ngong, as a devout Christian, was also the Chair of the Cameroon Baptist Convention Men Fellowship.

The mayor was a patriot and unifier to the core. Dr Ngong Innocent was committed to help Belo regain its once buoyant socio-economic nature. 

He paraphrased a slogan from the United States former president, Donald Trump: “Make Belo Great Again”, campaigning for the return of several children to school, by assisting them with didactics.

The mayor and his executive fought hard to revive economic activities in the Belo urban area, which had been shut down as a result of the ravaging armed conflict.

In that brave commitment, defying fear when many of his peers are Internally Displaced Persons, IDPs, he stepped on the itching toes of separatist warlords hiding in caves, bushes and abroad. 

The Guardian Post sends condolences to the families of the martyrs of unity. There is no doubt that in the fight pitting defence and security forces against separatist fighters, several civilians have been killed in Belo, which is one of the hotspots in the North West Region.

The current mayor may have been a target and separatist fighters are celebrating that the chicken came home to roost.

Who's next? Why was he not given protection, given that he was a target for revenge? How many compatriots have to be killed in cold blood before Yaounde silences the guns that cannot bring unity or peace, where only a political solution can?

Before his passage to glory, Social Democratic Front, SDF, Member of Parliament, Hon Awudu Mbaya Cyprian, announced that he was not going in for another mandate, citing the continuous killing of his people in the Anglophone armed conflicts. 

“Given that I have decided to put safety-the safety of all constituents first, before or above my personal political ambition of staying in parliament, I must not go back to parliament, under the present circumstances, walking on the blood and in disrespect of all my constituents, who have lost their lives in this civil war,” he had said. 

Cameroon commemorated the 52nd National Day on the blood of three compatriots, who were going to join in the festivities that in all countries, are celebrated with pomp, pageantry and the love of unity.

That blood should gnaw on the conscience of those in Yaounde. Cameroon cannot be in peace when blood, be that of defence and security forces, civilians or separatist fighters, who are all citizens of Cameroon, is being spilled in the two English-speaking Regions.

In the words of Primo Levi, a Jewish Nazi Holocaust survivor, "monsters exist, but they are too few to be really dangerous". 

Separatists are the monsters, but those who say the military can impose unity and bring peace are in Primo’s words, "more dangerous".

The spilling of innocent blood on National Day of Unity by vandals, who in their pipe dream, want to divide the country struggling to "live together", should be a trigger to reflect on the "situation" in the North West and South West Regions, before next year's elections.