By Menge George
A family in Kumba, Meme Division of the South West Region is yet to come to terms with the unspeakable act committed to one of theirs, whose name we are withholding to avoid further stigmatisation. Joan, (not her real names) was sexually abused in a police station after she was arrested and accused of collaborating with Ambazonia armed group. (Ambazonia or separatist fighters are a group of individuals who have taken up arms against the state fighting to create a state called Ambazonia)
Witnesses say Joan was picked up alongside other people who were customers in her bar by some members of the defense and security forces on patrol. It was about 11:00pm when they smashed-opened his bar as the customers were drinking behind closed doors. They were seriously tortured before being whisked off to the police detention centre at Mabanda.
It was in the police dungeon that she was sexually abused by some police officers after she had been tortured and forced to accept her dealings with the separatist fighters.
Joan only succeeded to gain her freedom thanks to intervention from her husband who spent huge sums of money to buy her way out of the police cell. She was immediately taken to hospital where she spent about a week in the health facility.
We gathered that this was not the first time Joan had suffered similar sexual abuse. The first time was in 2021 when gun men along the Ekondo-Titi road ambushed their vehicle as she was travelling with her kids to the village. She and one other woman on board the passenger vehicle were seriously abused by gunmen suspected to be separatist fighters.
Her case is just one out of so many crimes committed against innocent civilians by both the defense and security forces and separatist fighters. The situation has remained so volatile that human right groups have been calling for serious investigations and bring perpetrators of such crimes to face justice. They have also called for an end to the anglophone crisis that has caused several families to separate from their loved ones and so that peace can return to the two anglophone regions.
