Cameroon: Military Kills Another Catholic Church Progeny.

By Eric Tataw- Monday February 4, 2019.

At least, four unarmed civilians have been shot and killed by elements of the Cameroon Army in Mbeme, an oil-market community in Upper Banyang Sub-division, Manyu Division in Cameroon’s twitchy South West Region, locals have told National Telegraph.

According to sources, on Tuesday, January 29, 2019, the tetrad was shot and killed at Mission Quarter, Mbeme amongst them, a fervid Catholic Christian and mother to a Priest of the Mamfe Diocese.   Mbanwi Rosaline, mother to Rev Fr Henry Mbanwi of Mbeme village, a vibrant Catholic Woman has been shot and killed, our informant noted in sadness.

Reports also say one woman from Batoh-Numba, a farming community along the Bamenda/Mamfe Road, a man popularly known as Abouki who does credit transfer in Asah Quarter still in Mbeme and another man whose village is still unknown were all killed same day, same location.

Eyewitnesses say the soldiers had disguised like traders coming to purchase oil, all dressed in civilian apparel in a private car before opening fire on villagers who rushed towards them with the intentions of inquiring oil prices precisely at Idle Park at Mission Quarter. The Mamfe Diocese and the Mbeme Parish are very aggrieved, a source said.

The military has reportedly gone gaga with their guns in the two English-speaking Regions, shooting and killing civilians in their thousands with impunity, sources have said. Reports also say this isn’t the first time a Catholic Christian is being killed.

Fr. Cosmas Omboto Ondari, a Mill Hill Priest from Kenya, serving as the Parochial Vicar of the St Martin of Tours Parish in Kembong, some few kilometers from Mamfe, the headquarters of Manyu, South West of Cameroon was also shot and killed by the military at about 3 PM, Wednesday, November 21, 2018.

On Friday, July 20, 2018, the Cameroonian military opened fire on another Priest. Rev Fr. Alexander Sob Nougi, Former Education Secretary for the Diocese of Buea who at the time of his death was Parish Priest of Bomaka in Buea was shot in Muyuka, another unruly town in the South West. 

Grisly scenes of the contingent military-styled execution of priests and their relatives and congregants abound across the North West and South West Regions.

Insecurity has greatly increased in the two English-speaking regions of Cameroon with Anglophone armed groups fighting for the Restoration of the statehood of the former British Southern Cameroons fondly called Ambazonia.