Fako: Security officers feared killed, others abducted in Muyuka.

The Guardian Post gathered that following the incident, there was security reinforcement in the locality, probably to fish out the gunmen who attacked the officers on duty. 

Some locals narrated that throughout that ill-fated Friday, sustained gunshots were heard across Ikata village, causing locals to scamper into hiding for fear of the unknown.

Unconfirmed reports also emerged that several houses were set ablaze same day in the locality. Traffic leading to other villages in Muyuka Subdivision, is said to have been halted for several hours. 

Commercial motorcycle riders, who are known to be those who mostly transport persons and goods across the rocky terrain of the Subdivision, are also said to have avoided the roads for hours as guns coughed.

It is reported that news of the attack also caused security officers stationed at a gendarmerie post in Bafia-Muyuka village to be on the alert. The officers are said to have mobilised to all corners of the locality, in readiness to ward off any separatist fighters incursion as tension mounted in Muyuka.

Muyuka Subdivision remains the most affected of the six Subdivisions that make up Fako Division, since the bloodletting in the North West and South West Regions started in 2017. Munyenge, wherein entire homes were set ablaze, pushing civilians to relocate into the bushes, is yet to fully recover from the conflict.

Meanwhile, it is not the first time that separatist incursions are resulting in deaths in Ikata village. The community has repeatedly tasted the fallout of the conflict, with homes burnt previously, security officers, civilians and gunmen pledging allegiance to the separatist movement also killed. 

The incident comes months after that of Monday May 5, 2025, during which an Improvised Explosive Device, IED, blow up two amoured cars along the Muyuka-Munyenge road.

In that incident, at least two officers of the Rapid Intervention Battalion, BIR, were killed. The IED then is believed to have been buried on the road by separatist fighters.

Cocoa business at standstill 

The high cocoa prizes of the 2025/2026 farming season that heightened hopes of recovery across the conflict-hit communities, have relapsed, leaving most families in a tight corner. 

With the fallen cocoa prices at the world market, The Guardian Post gathered that gunmen have stopped the buying of cocoa beans across several villages in Muyuka Subdivision and beyond. It is said that they are imposing a prize per kilogram of cocoa that doesn’t tie with the prevailing market situation. 

Most farmers are said to be going through hell as agents who buy the cash crop from the interiors have refused to succumb to the dictates of the separatist fighters, leaving the communities in limbo. 

The administrative unit remains among those which have not witnessed any real development, since the lingering crisis that is inching to a decade, started. 

Roads and other basic social amenities such as potable water, and health facilities, especially government-owned, have collapsed across villages. Last Friday’s incident comes after months of uneasy calm which was mostly linked to the work of security forces across the Subdivision.

This article was first published in The Guardian Post Edition No:3748 of Wednesday April 01, 2026