Southern Cameroons ghost towns: Businesses shuttered without Biya regime’s compensation ⁰

Anglophone businessmen and women have told the Cameroon Concord News Group that they have suffered huge losses since President Biya declared war against the English speaking people of Southern Cameroons and many have attacked the regime in Yaoundé for refusing to bail them out.

Now known as the Southern Cameroons Crisis, the leader of the English speaking peoples of West Cameroon Sisiku Ayuk Tabe declared the independence of Southern Cameroons from the majority French speaking East Cameroun.

The regime in Yaoundé responded with a genocidal war that has claimed the lives of thousands of Southern Cameroonians.

Reacting to the Southern Cameroons plight, Ambazonia fighters from both the South West and North West have staged hundreds of anti French Cameroun operations killing more than five thousand Cameroon government army soldiers.

Our chief correspondent Rita Akana approached several businessmen and women in Bamenda, Buea, Kumba and Mamfe who described how they had been piling up losses as a result of the war in Southern Cameroons and Biya regime’s rejection of their pleas for compensation.

Hotel owners said the Anglophone diaspora came home every December in their thousands and visited their hotels and entertainment halls and restaurants. But everything is now frozen and the loss so far is estimated in millions of US dollars.

“Not one person from Europe or the US will come to Limbe or Buea this December,” a businessman who spoke to our cream of reporters but sued for anonymity said.

“We are not asking Biya and his government for 100% compensation. Bring even 20%, that will be okay. But since the war started and kontry Sunday took over, we haven’t received a penny from Yaoundé,” a Bamenda based business lady added.

Five hotel managers in Bamenda echoed her remarks.

A businessman in Kumba the chief city in Meme Division noted how his business used to provide for 24 employees and attract hundreds on a daily basis.

Now, “we spend most of our time rolling over debts,” he stated.

Three hotel owners in Fako Division hinted that their hundreds of millions of FCFA investments have evaporated following the war and they are sure to end 2024 in debt for the loans and interest,” they said.

Reporting last month, our Bamenda City reporter Fon Lawrence revealed that many businesses had shut down throughout the North West region since the beginning of the war and the fire that destroyed the Bamenda Main Market.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai