Travel restrictions imposed on Anglophone Cameroon
Local officials in the Northwest, one of the two Anglophone Cameroon regions ravaged by an ongoing year-long armed conflict, said people fleeing from the region would be subjected to scrutiny.
“As a measure to secure and protect those travelling out of the region, they will be required to provide additional information at their departure points,” the region’s chief of transport, Che Gilbert Ngong, said in a statement on Tuesday.
“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,” the statement said.
The move comes 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 September 25 ahead of the October 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 last year.
According to the United Nations, more than 180,000 people have been displaced internally and at least 30,000 have escaped to Nigeria where they now live in refugee camps. Enditem
