For not painting cabs in Amba colours: Suspected fighters set five taxis ablaze in Bamenda again.

The atrocity is believed to have been carried out as part of the heavily criticised drive of Amba fighters to get taxis in Bamenda painted in the separatist colours of white and blue. 

Wednesday’s arson brings to at least 10 cabs in Bamenda that have been set ablaze, mostly during the day.

Authors of the act, reports hold, fired guns severally into the air, scaring locals before proceeding to set fire on the taxis that were packed at a filling station. 

But for the resilient intervention of the population, locals hold that more taxis would have been burnt to ashes.

 It is reported that officers of the firefighting unit only visited the scene of the attack at dawn yesterday. 

Yesterday, most taxi drivers in Bamenda stayed away from work for fear of the unknown. The Mezam Taxi Drivers' Union is said to have held an emergency meeting but the resolutions were yet to be made public at the time we took to press last night.

One of the cab drivers who refused to be named, told The Guardian Post that: “We are not on strike, but we just feel reluctant to work today because of what happened to our colleagues. We are in solidarity with them because tomorrow, l may be the next target. We really need an end to this crisis”. 

Two weeks ago, two taxis were set on fire at Hospital Roundabout. 

Before then, on Tuesday June 18, at Che Street in the Ntarinkon vicinity of Bamenda II Subdivision, cabs were also said ablaze. 

That incident added to several others that had been recorded at Choubou, Mile 6 and Mile 7 within the same city.

Separatist fighters challenged to dress in blue & white

Many have qualified the attacks as cowardly and a show of wickedness. Observers are now challenging separatist fighters to lead by example in their naive quest to give separatist colours visibility.

They say separatist fighters have rather taken the second step before the first. They argue that instead of hiding in bushes and among civilians to issue such unproductive orders, the separatist foot agents should rather be the first to dress in the separatist colours of blue and white. 

Some further say they should paint themselves in blue and white colours if they so much believe their destruction campaign.

This way, those who hold this opinion say, it will be easy to identify the fighters while at the same time, it will make more meaning than the madness-driven orders putting many residents of Bamenda in more hardship.

Observers say it is sheer hypocrisy on the part of the gun-toting youngsters hiding and surfacing from time to time to cause havoc and forcing people to adopt illegal colours. 

Pundits say the move only shows that the so-called fighters themselves are tired of fighting and are now looking for soft targets.

There are those who are further arguing that the separatist fighters, from day one of the conflict in the North West and South West Regions were out of touch with reality. 

These, among them, are experts in conflict who say the repeated attacks on civilians and destruction of people’s source of livelihoods only point to the movement being illegitimate, anti-people and illegal.

Evil, criminality in disguise

Conflict analysts are now entering the fray to say and rightly so that what is happening in Bamenda falls squarely within the definition of high-level criminality and not the fight for any cause.

Carrying guns after armless and harmless civilians, it is being said, point to separatist fighters being unable to face the military and looking for whom to blame for their frustrations.

It is even said in certain quarters that the conflagration on cabs in Bamenda rather sends across a message of targeted attacks to further impoverish the population of the North West Regional capital.

From fighting for the two English-speaking Regions to now focusing on forcing people to paint taxis in white and blue colours only in Bamenda, observers say a lot of things have run out of course among the self-styed liberators-turned oppressors.

Surrender, go to DDR Centres

Why some are still battling to make meaning of what is actually happening, those who are challenging the separatist fighters to dress in blue and white colours are also saying they should surrender.

In this light, they argue that instead of idling in a vicious cycle of repeated destruction and hiding in bushes, separatist fighters can also make use of the window of appeasement from the Head of State President Pau Biya.

They are rather reminding the Amba fighters on the need to simply go to the Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration Centres, DDR and surrender. 

Those pushing for separatist fighters to make use of this option say they have the opportunity to rebuild their lives, instead of wasting their lives.

‘Deceivers’ enjoying abroad

Additionally, separatist fighters, for many, are wasting their time and energy in killing and destroying their people while self-styled leaders of the movement are enjoying the best of life abroad. 

They are reminding those behind the destruction that many of those who spent hours online years and months ago vowing to fight to the end have given up and are now living their normal lives abroad.

Most of them, The Guardian Post gathered, have picked up jobs while others are furthering their education. Some are reported to have engaged in businesses. 

Others, we are told, have even changed their names and deleted clips of things they said online just a few years ago, vowing that there will be the last persons standing. 

But today, the handwriting shows most of them are focused on raising their families and doing things that are personally meaningful to them instead of pursuing what observers say is a pipe dream. 

This story was first published in The Guardian Post issue No:3200 of Friday August 16, 2024