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Cameroon Military Sweeps Northwest City to Weed Out Separatists

Moki Edwin Kindzeka

   YAOUNDE - Cameroon's military this week launched an operation to weed
   out anglophone separatists in the northwestern city of Bamenda.'¯Locals
   say the commercial hub is eerily quiet after the military banned
   motorcycles, and rebels responded by demanding all vehicles stay off
   the streets.'¯Civilians have been escaping the renewed fighting to
   neighboring towns and villages.
   Twenty-seven-year-old nurse Rachel Ngobising arrived in Yaoundé late
   Wednesday after escaping heavy fighting in Cameroon's northwestern city
   of Bamenda.

   "I struggled and I trekked for a very long distance before I could find
   a car that could smuggle me out of Bamenda. Worst of all, when I
   finally got a car, I had to pay five times the normal price [fare]
   because even the driver is scared. He was taking a risk," she said.

   The fighting broke out as Cameroon's military this week swept the city
   of about 350,000 people, looking for anglophone separatists.

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