Recent killings in NW: MINDEF Says Four Terrorists, Not Innocent Boys Were Killed In B’da

The ministry of defence has denied allegations from inhabitants of Bamenda in the North West region, stating that state soldiers shot and murdered four innocent boys around the Meta Quarter neighbourhood during an operation Saturday 23 January 2021. 

Angry youth parading streets with corpse of one of the slained youths

A release issued Wednesday 27 January 2021 by the Head of the Communication Division, Colonel Atonfack Guemo Cyrille Serge, states that the four boys neutralized by elements of the 5th Gendarmerie region during a preventive control operation in the Meta Quarter neighbourhood in Bamenda II Subdivision were “terrorists” who were found in the hideout of a separatist leader.

MINDEF Release 

“The objective of this operation was to capture a group of terrorists gathered in an abandoned building on the orders of the nicknamed ‘General’ Tiger who were planning an assault on the T-junction police post,” the release stated.

Atonfack further explained: “as military vehicles approached, these armed individuals who were busy consuming hard drugs were taken by surprise, and immediately opened fire on the elements of the Defense forces, who provided an energetic and appropriate response”.

He disclosed that aside the four neutralized terrorists, several of their peers were injured and escaped with the wounds while tens of M21 S and FAL type weapons were retrieved. 

He said investigations carried out by local authorities revealed that the abandoned building which was the epicenter of the skirmish was regularly used by the terrorist group as a confinement center for kidnapped persons before their transfer to fortified camps located in the forest.

Locals in Bamenda said the young people killed had nothing to do with the armed conflict in the region. The four killed included Fon Blaise whose casket was recently paraded across the town, Sale Sadam, Ntakah Nelly Mbah and Ngalim Alucious. 

The corpse of one of the murdered teenagers was paraded by his peers across major streets in Bamenda recently before burial.