These women demonstrated to denounce the abduction of their husbands and children by suspected armed Fulani herders from Nigeria.
According to a publication in the newspaper of our colleague Mimi Mefo, dozens of women demonstrated on Tuesday, June 20, 2023 in front of the Ako Gendarmerie Brigade located in the North West region. They demonstrated to denounce the abduction and kidnapping of their husbands and children.
“Suspected armed Fulani herders from Nigeria stormed the village of Buku, abducting a good number of men and children,” reports the newspaper of our colleague Mimi Mefo.
According to local sources, the phenomenon of kidnapping people for ransom is gaining more and more space in the locality of Buku to which the women who demonstrated belong. In fact, just a few months ago, more than 22 people were kidnapped there. They were released after ransom payment.
A video that has gone viral on the web shows women with peace plants in front of the gendarmerie brigade, demanding that the Defense and Security Forces take matters into their own hands.
” It is not the first time. Three months ago my brother’s wife and other people were kidnapped and we were asked to pay a ransom of four million which we borrowed and paid…Today again they came for my father and three other people. What is all this? Are we not Cameroonians who deserve peace and security”, declares in the publication of the newspaper of our colleague a woman whose family is continuously targeted.
“Reports indicate that the kidnappers before taking away their victims ‘tortured and injured’ the local population while promising to return for more people“, says the newspaper of our colleague.
We learn from Mimi Mefo’s diary that the locality of Ako remained without a telephone network for more than a year due to poor maintenance, leaving the whole community in the dark and cut off from the rest of the world. Such a situation made the community a weak point for the kidnappers.