2024-02-15 22:34:25
What was supposed to be a celebration for Cameroonian youth turned into a tragedy in a town in the North-West. A homemade bomb exploded this Saturday, February 11 in Nkambe, causing several victims, during the parade in this locality in the grip of an armed conflict.
Cameroonian youth will not only remember good memories of the celebration of their annual festival. While the country was celebrating 18-35 year olds this Saturday, February 11, a dramatic event put a damper on the festivities in Nkambe, capital of the Donga-Mantung department in the English-speaking North West.
The explosion took place just after the parade
According to information obtained by our editorial staff, the commune of Nkambe which had hosted the traditional parade on the occasion of the youth festival, was the scene of a violent explosion late in the morning this Saturday.
A homemade bomb would have exploded just after the students passed through this region in the grip of an armed conflict with separatist rebels.
A still uncertain assessment
If the human toll had not yet been established with certainty at the start of the afternoon, a local source contacted by our editorial staff already mentioned “ deaths “. The prefect of the department and his staff were also gathered in a crisis unit in the afternoon to take stock of this tragedy.
Still, this tragedy further darkens the climate in the North-West, where the authorities continue to proclaim a return to “ normality » without managing to stem daily violence.
The trail of separatists in ambush
Because behind this deadly explosion, it is the trail of armed independence groups that held the rope. Nkambe and its region constitute one of the bastions of the secessionist fighters who have been fighting for more than 5 years for the independence of the “Ambazonie« .
It is therefore difficult not to see behind this bloody act perpetrated after the government parade an action of reprisal or a show of force. In any case, yet another tragic illustration of the extreme tensions which reign in the North-West and South-West regions, although they are portrayed as “ pacified » by Yaoundé.