“They smashed the wooden door and stormed in. Then they asked, ‘Are you anglophones?’ We said yes. Then they shot us several times. We begged. We cried and begged them not to shoot us. But they just shot.” Read this nerve splitting story of young girls shot and left for dead in their own homes, by professional soldiers who should rather be protecting them.” An execution style killing that partly went wrong with the miraculous survival of the younger and very brave sister.
Carine, a 24 year-old-nurse was sprayed with war guns. The bullets dug into her neck, arms and stomach. Medics pronounced her clinically dead upon arrival at the hospital. Her teenage kid sister, Melisa, was fatally shot in the stomach and both arms. She is recovering in the hands of Doctors Without Borders at the St Mary Solidad Hospital in Bamenda. Their brother was too smart for the killer in military uniform. Her sisters had helped him sprint into safety through the ceiling. The two sisters thought the soldiers would spare them because they are females. They were wrong.
Both girls and brother, of Mankon and Wum parents, were having a quiet day in their modest home when they heard gun shots outside. They closed and locked their main door. Moments later, gun totting soldiers crashed in thirsting to spray their targets with bullets. Their parents were both away hustling as usual to cater for their family. It later emerged that their killers were probably avenging the killing of their colleague, a military officer of the Rapid Intervention Battalion, BIR. He was a military nurse who was recently promoted to rank of lieutenant. The authorities have not officially commented on those responsible for the death of the lieutenant of Bamoun extraction. Unofficially though, the separatist Ambazonia gun men are being blamed for the killing.
Carine had great dreams and her sister has been earning excellent grades in secondary school. The lovely girls, as their parents and friends describe them were very honest and humble obedient children. Yet they were targeted by people who should have been their protectors. Many are at a loss to understand how these kids could have posed a threat to the military to warrant such cruel death.
Melisa tells her parents that they were having a normal day at home when they suddenly heard a big bang that scared them terribly. So, they decided to lock their door and stay inside. Later, they heard several gunshots which suggested that the military had arrived. They broke into the house and got the girls out of their bedroom into the sitting room. They accused Carine of having seen their colleague shot dead. The girls begged and begged that they were innocent. After, identifying the girls as Anglophones they opened fire on the elder sister Carine. It appears the bullets caught her in the arms as she raised her arms begging in fright as the barrel of the gun pointed at her. They shot her several times, but three fatal shots hit her in the neck chest and stomach. She collapsed, blood pumping out of her from different parts of the body.
Then it was little Melissa’s turn. She had been ordered to sit on a chair. She cried out begging that they should not kill her sister. But their attackers pumped several bullets into her too. Her left arm was shot and fractured. A bullet went through her stomach and out through her back. It ruptured her intestines. Another hit her in the waist. The soldiers left Melissa for dead and went away with her mobile phone.
Meanwhile, after leaving, the soldiers returned to the house again shortly after. Realizing that she was still breathing, they kicked the kids in the stomach several times. It seemed their goal was clearly to eliminate them. Melisa says they pointed a torch light into her eyes to ascertain death. She heard one of the soldiers suggesting that they should finish her off with a headshot. But another soldier said there was no need, as she would not survive.
Meanwhile, neighbour who had hidden herself and her family members inside their house recounted how she heard the soldiers arguing about the shootings. Some soldiers were heard blaming their colleague for shooting the children who could clearly innocent. Another resident has recounted how she was ordered to open the door or face the consequences. She obliged. But they pounced on her beating and kicking her with their military boots and threatened to shoot her. They left when her little children wailed uncontrollably.
BRAVERY
Left alone, Mellissa said she felt she was dying but decided she would live. “I begged God to let me live for my parents” she said. “My throat was so dry. I became so thirsty. I creeped and got much water to drink and felt better. That is when I crawled and picked up my sister’s phone to call my mother” Melissa said.
It was a phone call that brought help to the bleeding girls. Her mother would call her husband. Thanks to a market woman who had the hotline for Doctors Without Borders, they got urgent medical help. Speedily, husband and wife rushed home, to the neighbourhood where virtually everyone had fled fearing military reprisals for the killing of their colleague by suspected Ambazonia fighters. Melissa’s parents met her sitting on her bed, bleeding. Her sister Carine was lying motionless in her pool of blood on the floor of their sitting room. Her blood had also collected on the chair she was shot, gravely.
The victims’ father, Fru Christopher father told The Voice that her wife had earlier called him to warn that there was trouble in their Ngomgham neighborhood. She called again to report the shooting of their daughters. He described the shooting expressing surprise that his kids were shot in almost the same manner. Speedily, she and husband rushed home, to the neighborhood. “It is a miracle that our daughter is alive” he said. “If Carine had not helped the junior brother Collins to hide in the ceiling, he too would have been shot especially as he is a young boy. My daughters thought that as girls, they would be safe. Alas! It hurts me badly to lose my first child under such circumstances. I leave it to God.”
Meanwhile, Melissa has undergone two surgical operations and is now instable but critical condition. Her mother is in tears for her loss but is also comforted by the life of her surviving daughter and son. She is so grateful to Doctors without Borders for their prompt intervention with their ambulance and medical care. Melissa’s doctors are impressed with her bravery and spirited fight to stay alive.
Corroboration
An inhabitant of the area said “We were home when we heard a very loud sound. Some neighbors ran to my house telling me there was a corpse lying just some meters away from my house here. They said the Amba boys had shot and killed a military man who was leaving in an apartment just in the next compound. Everyone started running away from the quarter and I ran into my house with my family and we stayed quiet until at about 1 pm or so, when the military arrived and met their colleague in his own pool of blood. The next thing we heard were heavy gunshots and military breaking into these houses, (pointing at the door where Carine and kid sister stayed with their Family) we heard Carine crying and begging that they did not know anything and that they should not shoot them. As the crying was still going on, we heard about six gunshots coming from the house and heard her wail in pain. We immediately concluded that all was not well for her and her kid sister.”