*The Fighters Has Become a Business
The Cameroonian army is nevertheless pleased to have recorded “several hundred” surrenders in recent months without it being possible to verify it, or to measure its possible scope as the movement of separatist combatants is a nebulous one complex, and increasingly divided.
In a hotel in the capital, Yaoundé, where he is housed by the authorities, we met, ex-General Nyambere, as he had her called before his surrender last summer. “Today some of my fellow combatants are just defending their own interests,” he says. “It has become a business. They take the properties, settle there, take the women. Some have up to 15, 20 wives.
The soldiers kill and the combatants kill. I joined the fight to defend the English-speaking populations. Not to hurt them. That’s why I decided to stop. His eyes still blushed, he said, having spent too much time in the darkness of the bush. He shows us videos of threats against him posted on social networks.
Considered a traitor by his former brothers in arms, he said he was worried about his safety. “As I speak to you my life is in danger. And I’m not getting any help from this side from the authorities. I risk my life. Everything can happen. I keep machetes under my bed.
I can only rely on me for my safety. ” He also deplores the slowness of the authorities to accede to the promises made in exchange for his surrender … in particular that of releasing all the prisoners of the crisis still numerous behind bars.
And the slowness in the application of the conclusions of the great national dialogue held in Yaoundé last October, and supposed to allow then to find a beginning of the outcome of this largely forgotten conflict.
For security reasons, the first names have been changed. Source: rfi.fr