Ghost Town syndrome infests English Cameroon

‘Limbe is on ghost town. Shops are closed at half mile. I have not seen any student on the street, or taxi on the street. A few bike riders though harbor at strategic outlets.’

These are the words of a patriotic denizen based in the South west Coastal city of Fuel and Friendship ‘Limbe’, early Monday morning attesting to the fact that schools have not resumed in Fako division.

‘I am in Bambili and there are no signs of schools. Even those vehicles which usually pass to kumbo are not driving today. The latest news in town is the purported picking up of Wirba at 2am. This information however is to be confirmed.’

A description of the usually lively, active and buoyant education setting of Bambili in the Tubah Sub division of the North West Region of Cameroon, today known by some as ‘Southern Cameroon’s or ‘Ambazonia’. Speaking to a student of the Bambui polytechnique early Monday morning she confirms that a visitor passing by for the first time will hardly believe there is a University setting in this location.

‘Kumba Monday morning is like a desert. The wings of the Ghost town are spreading wide’ Mina says. Fresh news from K-town indicating that kumba is in dead silence. All public places are closed, no schools are open, shops are closed and no vehicles circulate. Fontem like Mamfe, Buea, Tiko and Alou are not different from graveyards, inhabitants on phone discussions reveal. The particular aspect about Ghost town in all of English Cameroon is the nonviolence.

And like a student joked over Cameroon having the longest of weekends on the globe referring to the fact that weekends begin on Fridays and end on Tuesdays, it is eminent that the English inhabited part of Cameroon has automatically adopted the new ghost town trend sending strong messages to the administrative quarters on the seriousness of the Anglophones’ stand. They want their leaders to be released and they want the Anglophones to be treated like the Francophones for both languages have equal status and value.

‘Excess troops in the North West and South West regions scare us so much we cannot afford to leave our homes’ 18 year old Form Five Student of the Buea Grammar School, Mireille from Ekona affirms.

Painting a picture of the militarized area in which she lives following the outbreak of the ‘I have had enough syndrome in the Anglophone settings of Cameroon.’ Mireille is traumatized by the reality and wonders whether the CFI is producing and shooting the second part of ‘Hotel Rwanda’. Citizens are however advised to dial 222 201 500 to report cases of violence around them at such times for immediate interventions.

This is a night mare for teachers who have nothing doing but wait for dialogue to break the ice. Some have resorted to farming, some to drinking wine at the school premises with their principals as they have no students to teach, and others are vacating the trouble infested zones to try out new things in the other 8 regions of Cameroon. Reports indicate that the marginalized citizens will not stop the operation Ghost towns if demands are not cautiously looked into.