On Monday, April 19, 2021, commandos of the Rapid Intervention Battalion (BIR) arrested the separatist fighter nicknamed General Cobra along with four others.

Locals, who have since entered celebratory mood, say General Cobra was behind Saturday's shooting at the Mankon Palace.

“This is Cobra arrested by the BI R this morning after the shooting in the palace on Saturday. He was very deadly, ”a villager said.

A trusted source said soldiers shot Cobra in the leg before arresting him along with four others.

The armed separatists are said to be standing against the construction of the Ntahbeng-Mankon Palace Road. Workers carrying out the project have been kidnapped and others maimed.

The elite of Mankon met at the Mankon Fon's Palace last Saturday to chart a way forward. Cobra and his gang are said to have used the opportunity to spread fear.

The President of the Executive of the North West Regional Council, Prof. Fru Angwafo III was making a speech at the ceremony when armed separatists opened fire.

The ceremony at the palace went on successfully despite the shootings.

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.

In January, the Secretary of State of Vatican City, HE Pietro Cardinal Parolin, presented the message from Pope Francis at the esplanade of the Big Mankon Cathedral urging the fighters to drop their weapons and embrace peace.

His words: “We are all responsible for peace. All the actors of society are responsible, from the smallest to the biggest person. No one can feel exonerated from the struggle against evil. This is the challenge that faces you today. That finally, arms may be put down and the peace and reconciliation may reign within us and around us. Violence never solves problems. It only creates more problems. Peace is a journey of hope, dialogue and reconciliation. Dialogue therefore is the best way to solve conflicts and misunderstandings. ”