Repentant separatist fighters protest in Bamenda Facebook
Ex-separatist fighters lodged at the Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration, DDR, Centre in Bamenda marched to the office of the North West Regional Governor on Monday, February 15, 2021, to remind the government of its unfulfilled promises.
"Amba must obey government...if you want to kill me, go ahead. But I will never run away from this country," the ex-fighters sang waving the Cameroon flag as they marched up to the Governor's office.
The former fighters told Governor Lele Lafrique Tchoffo Deben Adolphe that the government is yet to fulfill some of the enticing promises that made them drop their weapons.
Aside from asking the government to improve their living conditions, the protesters requested that they be given identification cards that show that they are repentant fighters.
They also asked the government to put them on an allowance that can enable them to meet up with some of their daily needs.
“We also want the government to put out a clear calendar for those who have been disarmed. We need to know how long we have to stay in the DDR center before we can be reintegrated into society. Some of us have been here for too long,” one of the ex-fighters is quoted as saying.
Governor Lele Lafrique Tchoffo Deben Adolphe asked the protesters to put their demands in writing. He promised to visit them at their center on Wednesday.
Cameroon-Info.Net recalls that on February 1, 2021, repentant separatist fighters in Buea staged a protest citing similar demands.
On February 2, 2021, Sixtus Gabsa, Director of the Bamenda DDR Centre organised a press conference in a bid to avert a similar protest at his center.
“More trades are going to be introduced in the days ahead like cookery, shoe mending, and so on. We intend to beef up the professional competence of our ex-fighters and eventually reintegrate them by giving them financial resources to establish on their own and to even create more jobs for others,” Gabsa said. “Besides vocational competence, we provide assistance to them based on the nature of their problems when they present them to us.”
“This centre is not in heaven, nor is it a church. So, we do not expect to have only a bed of roses in this centre. We also have problems that come up. We have issues from time to time but we provide solutions to these problems. Because our ex-fighters are, what they are and sometimes they have issues, which come up, and we handle them accordingly,” said Sixtus Gabsa.
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