Yaoundé – Local officials in Cameroon’s Northwest, one of two English-speaking regions ravaged by a year-long armed conflict, on Tuesday said people fleeing from the region will be subjected to scrutiny.
According to the region’s chief of transport, Che Gilbert Ngong, the measure is to secure and protect those travelling out of the region.
“They shall state the reason for their departure, the name of the receiver and his or her contact. Anybody who will not comply with this order shall have his or her journey cancelled,’’ it said.
The move came three days after authorities in the Southwest, the other Anglophone region, stopped families from relocating to French-speaking side of the country following mass exodus of people from the restive region.
Armed separatist forces have issued a “no-circulation’’ ultimatum in the troubled Anglophone regions beginning from Sept. 25 ahead of the Oct. 7 presidential poll.
The separatists want to disrupt the election in the regions but the government has assured a trouble-free vote.
An armed insurgency is in progress in the country after the armed separatists declared a symbolic “independence” of the two regions in October 2017.
According to the United Nations, over 180,000 people have been displaced internally and no fewer than 30,000 have escaped to Nigeria where they now live in refugee camps.
(Xinhua/NAN)
