Bamenda – In a harrowing escalation of violence, the people of Baba 1 in Ngoketunjia County were plunged into fear and grief today as Cameroonian (LRC) soldiers unleashed brutal retaliation, looting and killing in a clear attempt to retaliate against the village’s perceived support of Ambazonia Restoration Fighters (ARF). The raid unfolded in the wee hours of the night at around 1 AM on Monday, November 11, 2024, when armed Cameroonian forces stormed the village with the alleged assistance of a masked local informant—a ‘blackleg’—who led the soldiers directly to areas believed to be ARF strongholds.
This military incursion, widely seen as a revenge mission, came in response to an assault on LRC troops by ARF forces a week prior. That ambush, an embarrassing defeat for the LRC military, left about nine Cameroonian soldiers dead and exposed vulnerabilities within the occupation forces in Ngoketunjia. Reports indicate that the military, humiliated and in search of reprisal, was plotting a counterattack on Baba 1, a village they suspect has harbored and supported ARF fighters.
Despite the army’s intentions to capture or eliminate ARF members, intelligence leaks warned the fighters in advance, allowing them to slip away before the assault began. This foiled mission ignited a vengeful fury among the Cameroonian soldiers, who, frustrated by their inability to locate ARF fighters, turned their rage on the village itself. According to eye-witnesses, the soldiers set upon civilians in Baba 1 with alarming brutality. Motorbikes were set aflame, homes were ransacked, and other personal belongings were systematically destroyed as the soldiers sought to punish the community.
The day’s horror peaked in a shocking display of cruelty toward a former government teacher who had abandoned the profession due to the region’s turmoil and had recently begun running a small bar and provisions store. The teacher, whose name ABS got as Mohfesame Smella Wandoro, was accosted by the soldiers, tortured, and ultimately executed. Before his murder, soldiers reportedly forced him to don a military uniform, an act of degradation intended to depict him as an enemy combatant. In what many villagers have called an unthinkable breach of humanity, soldiers demanded access to his mobile money account, forcing him to reveal his security code before they plundered his cash. Even after surrendering his last possessions, he was shot dead in cold blood.
In a powerful testament to the trauma suffered, an eye-witness recounted to ABS News that this act of putting a uniform on the teacher was a deliberate ploy to frame him posthumously as an insurgent, attempting to justify his execution under the false pretense of a military engagement. The display of violence against a civilian with no connection to the ongoing resistance fighters is emblematic of the Cameroonian military’s ruthless campaign to terrorize Ambazonian communities.
Today’s assault on Baba 1 is a sobering reminder of the lengths the LRC regime will go to in its attempt to quash any support for Ambazonian aspirations. Far from targeting the actual fighters responsible for last week’s ambush, the soldiers instead chose to inflict suffering on unarmed civilians, in an act that can only be described as collective punishment and terror.
The village of Baba 1 now bears the scars of this violent intrusion, its residents left to mourn in the aftermath of such brutality. This tragedy highlights the devastating impact of the ongoing conflict, where innocent lives are shattered under the weight of a political and military struggle that has left communities like Baba 1 at the mercy of state-sponsored violence.
