Over 1000 women stage protest march to NW governor
By Mua Patrick Mughe in Yaounde
The long standing inter-tribal conflict pitting the people of Oku in Bui division and Mbesa in Boyo division, both in the North West region, has again showed its ugly head.
Close to a thousand placard-waving Mbesa women, Tuesday February 16, undertook a protest walk to the North West regional headquarters, Bamenda to present their astringent grievances to the governor.
Before embarking on the protest walk to Bamenda, the Mbesa women are reported to have stormed the office of the Belo divisional officer, whom we gathered, could not immediately provide solutions to their worries.
The protesting women, carrying placards with messages such as: “No to recent attacks and torture by Oku people in farmlands,” were however intercepted around Kedjem Keku (Babanki), few meters from Bamenda by a delegation headed by North West governor, Adolf Lele L’afrique at about 2:00 am, breaking Wednesday.
The governor, who was accompanied by the SDF national chairman - John Fru Ndi, had pleaded with the enraged women to return to Mbesa, promising that their grievances will be look into in no distant time.
After listening to governor, Adolf Lele L’Afrique, the women were then transported to Mbesa. However, seemingly not satisfied, the women have written a strongly-worded letter to the presidency, urging the head of state to wade in with a lasting solution to the crisis which has caused the people of Mbesa to live in constant fear and panic.
The origin of the Oku-Mbesa inter-tribal conflict could be traced back as far as 1982 when the indigenes of the two localities first clashed. The conflict later resurfaced in 1988 and in 2007.
The 2007 conflict, it should be noted, escalated to a frequency as high as twice in two months, recording the highest number of human casualties and property damage.
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