Armed separatists patrolling in an Anglophone Community Facebook
Rev. Fr. Anthony Viban and Br. Zoum Collins are in hospital after armed separatists shot them Sunday morning.
Rev. Fr. Viban and a seminarian, Br. Zoum were on their way to celebrate Mass in Alahtening when armed men shot them at Mile 7 Akum.
“Rev. Fr. Viban and Br. Collins were on their way for mass this Sunday morning. Somewhere around Mile 7 Akum, they met a road blockade. As they stepped down to clear the way, a gunman from the bush shot them with a Dane gun, ”said a source familiar with the story who refused to be named for fear of reprisals.
Cameroon-Info.Net learned that Rev. Fr. Viban was shot on the hand while Br. Zoum Collins received bullets on his two knees.
Their vehicle, a blue RAV4 matriculated NW 624 AH also received several bullets. Bullets shattered all the glassware of the car, with some perforating the bodywork of the car.
Separatists were said to have blocked the road in the area in a bid to enforce a lockdown aimed at frustrating Sunday's regional elections. Observers wonder how an election will be taking place in Bamenda and roads are being blocked in Akum. Given that only municipal councilors and traditional rulers were electors, many wonder why the armed men chose to inflict so much pain on the locals who were not taking part in the pols.
Rev. Fr. Anthony Viban's car after he suffered a separatist attack (c) Facebook
Cameroon-Info.Net remembers that in April 2019, armed men attacked Rev. Bro. Oliver Gam and Rev. Bro. Anthony Viban, priests at the Catholic Mission Parish in Akum.
After beating up the priests, the armed men proceeded to ransack the presbytery and made away with a number of items.
Still, on Sunday, December 6, 2020, armed separatists attacked churches in Kumbo. The gunmen disrupted church services in Kishiy and Shisong under the pretext that Christians are traitors, as they should have remained indoors in respect of a separatist-imposed lockdown.
Cameroon's state forces have been battling to dislodge armed separatists who pitched their tents in the North West and South West Regions since Anglophone protests transformed into an armed conflict in 2017.
Corporate demands by Common Law Lawyers and Anglophone Teachers led to protests in November 2016. The street demonstrations later morphed into ongoing running gun battles between state forces and armed separatist fighters in the predominantly English-speaking regions, leading to untold destruction of human lives, their habitats, and livelihoods.
Tit-for-tat killings, kidnappings, arsons, maiming, and outright terror have become part of daily lives in some parts of the English-speaking regions.
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