Southern Cameroons Crisis: Yaoundé says kidnapped Divisional Delegates may still be alive ⁰

Five months after the abduction of some divisional delegates in Ndian Division, Cameroon’s Ministry of Defence has rolled out a communique that suggests that they may still be alive.

In a communique on last Wednesday’s attack on a school in Ekondo Titi by militiamen, Navy Captain Atonfack Guemo Cyrille Serge, Head of Communication Division at Cameroon’s Ministry of Defence said the civil servants are being held incommunicado by a separatist group led by pseudo-General Ten Kobo.

Reacting to the killing of four students and a teacher of Government Bilingual High School (GBHS) Ekondo Titi by gunmen, Navy Captain Atonfack said inter alia: “…Combing operations are ongoing on the ground to track the  assailants who, according to initial findings, would belong to a terrorist group headed by the so-called general ‘ten kobo’, who is equally responsible for the kidnapping and incommunicado holding of some divisional delegates of Ndian on June 15, and the murder of the divisional delegate in the Ministry of Economy, Planning and Regional Development.”

Cameroon-Info.Net recalls that this is the first time the Ministry of Defence is making allusion to the abducted divisional delegates whose whereabouts remain uncertain.

The only time a senior state official came close to commenting on the issue was on November 3, 2021, during the installation of Gilbert Guibai Baldena as the new Senior Divisional Officer for Ndian Division.

In his address, South-West Governor, Okalia Bilai Bernard asked for the observance of a moment of silence in memory of Mabia Johnson, the Ndian Divisional Delegate for Economy, Planning and Regional Development who was abducted on June 15 and killed on June 18 by separatist fighters.

The Governor continued his speech without mentioning the fate of the remaining kidnapped delegates.

Cameroon-Info.Net remembers that at around 9 am on Tuesday, June 15, 2021, armed separatist fighters abducted six divisional delegates in Misore-Balue village in Ekondo-Titi Subdivision, near Mundemba.

On Friday, June 18, 2021, three days after he was kidnapped by armed separatist fighters along with five other Divisional Delegates, 42-year-old Mabia Johnson Mudika, Divisional Delegate of Economy, Planning, and Regional Development, was killed by his abductors.

Those held incommunicado by militiamen are:

Mambe Elvis Ebaku, Ndian Divisional Delegate of State Property, Surveys, and Land Tenure

Felicia Ndong, Ndian Divisional Delegate of Housing and Urban Development

Elad Emmanuel, Ndian Divisional Delegate of Water and Energy Resources

Mbida Armand Christian, Ndian Divisional Delegate of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises, Social Economy and Handicraft

Agbor Stephen Nyenty, Divisional Chief of Service for Surveys, Ndian Division.

Back in June, Cameroon Tribune reported that the officials had left Mundemba, headquarters of Ndian Division, traveling by land to Ekondo Titi (one of the nine subdivisions of Ndian) on an official assignment to demarcate land for the construction of an electricity plant to enhance power distribution in Ndian Division.

“Between 9 and 10 am at two kilometers to Ekondo Titi, precisely Misore Road Junction, armed men erupted and forced them into the bush. Early hints spoke of some ransom being asked by the assailants but later on, conflicting notes from the social media refused any such ransom. It is not clear yet which amounts were requested,” state-run newspaper, Cameroon Tribune reported on June 23.

Source: Cameroon Info.Net