The youthful municipal administrator, who only turned 35 in March, was killed Sunday, May 10, 2020 in his native Eshobi village in what appears to be an ambush.

Open sources suggest that he was traveling with limited security to his village when his convoy was ambushed by separatists. It is said that he was leading a team to sensitise the population on measures aimed at containing the spread of the novel coronavirus, COVID-19. Other reports however add that he had planned a meeting with youths of Eshobi and its environs. Cameroon-Info.Net cannot independently verify these claims.

Ashu Prisley Ojong was elected Mayor of Mamfe last February 25, 2020 on the ticket of the ruling Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement, CPDM.

Cameroon’s defence and security forces have been fighting armed separatist militias in the North West and South West Regions of the country who seek to create a breakaway state christened Ambazonia.

“The Mayor of the CPDM-run council of Mamfe, Prisley Ojong is dead. Mamfe is the capital city of Manyu, one of the restive divisions in Cameroon’s South West Region. He was shot and killed by Ambazonian fighters, Sunday May 10, 2020, National Telegraph can confirm,” U.S.-based Cameroonian activist Eric Tataw said on Twitter.

Tataw is known to have asked armed men in the restive regions to target municipal officials and council staff among other civil and political leaders in the area.

In a live Facebook outing Sunday, April 12, 2020, Tataw asked members of the armed militias to “take out” mayors, councillors and staff of councils in Cameroon’s North West and South West Regions.

“All elected Mayors should know that they are not representing Ambazonia. I will start at the community level. All the mayors should know that they will no longer stay in Ambazonia. If we do not take you out from the council building, we will take you out of your house. We will also target your wives and children,” Tataw said inter alia.

He furthered that: “We will work on the softest targets and then we get to the toughest. We will start with mayors and council workers. We will also target divisional delegates, parliamentarians and their families and property.”

At press time, Cameroonian authorities were yet to make a statement on the attack that claimed the life of Mayor Ashu Prisley Ojong.