2024-02-17 03:51:51
Disturbing images posted on social media show armed fighters forcibly emptying a church in the center of Jakiri, in the English-speaking northwest. For 30 minutes, no intervention by the security forces in the face of this worrying paralysis of the authorities. Report in a firedamp zone.
The scene is as hallucinating as it is disturbing. On February 11, videos showed armed men entering a church in Jakiri and instruct the faithful to leave immediatelyunder penalty of being shot.
A church targeted in the heart of the city
For long minutes, the twenty fighters razed the religious building, threatening to kill « anyone who will be seen at the Youth Day festivities”. Neither seen nor known, no reaction from the authorities to this paralysis and the evacuation of the church in the city center.
An increasingly uninhibited separatist activism? Possible. Because shortly after, another video filmed this same armed group, marching with weapons in hand on the Jakiri festival square, unusually deserted.
Where are the authorities and security forces?
Enough to raise serious questions about the security vacuum in this area troubled for 5 years by the Anglophone conflict. But where has the sub-prefect of the Jakiri district gone to tolerate such “ invasion » ? And the defense forces, also absent?
These images implicitly raise the question of supposed control of certain localities by Yaoundé. The separatist noose seems to be tightening around Jakiri and its surroundings, as evidenced by the desertion of offices and businesses on “Ghost Town Day” every Monday.
Fear has changed sides in Jakiri
A local activist interviewed anonymously summarizes the situation: “In Jakiri, secessionist fighters regularly burst in for lightning actions in order to establish a climate of terror”. And to deplore that « fear has changed sides« : “It is the civilians and the rare representatives of the State who are hiding, for fear of reprisals”.
A hold which, if not total, therefore seems to be extended parts of this district, despite the somewhat fanciful official press releases…As the 2025 presidential election approaches, does the government still have Jakiri in hand? Nothing is less certain in view of these fleeting and disturbing images.