Female Ambazonian IDPs and refugees recount harrowing tales of sexual harassment, discrimination from landlords in host communities.
We begin the news today with this touching story that was initially investigated by Colbert Gwain, an Ambazonian digital rights activist, author, radio host and content creator. This is exclusive report recounts the Female Ambazonian refugees recount harrowing tales of sexual harassment, discrimination from landlords in host communities.
As I went through this report, I was deeply emotional. The question would be, when will this suffering stop? Should Ambazonians really be subjected to such cruelty because they opted for their rights to self determination?
One of the testifiers Frida Nain,(not her real names), age 30, had escaped from Belo, one of the epicenters of the deadly Ambazonian conflict in the restive Midland zone in early 2018, after clashes between colonial government forces and Ambazonian fighters saw her home go up in flames. Scampering for safety, she decided to relocate to Bamenda city, the capital of Mezam County where things were seemingly more stable. But that was only going to be the beginning of her travails in her new life as an Internally Displaced Person,( IDP).
Star Smart, please give us more details of this report.
Like you recounted Onyee, Frida Nain's arrival in Bamenda was only going to be the beginning of her travails in her new life as an Internally Displaced Person,( IDP).
" I was well received when I first arrived and managed to secure a one-room house at Ntamulung in Bamenda," the desperately-looking woman told the reporter.
"The Landlord and neighbours were so sympathetic about what had happened to me back in my native Belo," she recalls.
"He said we were a family and I could pay rents of FCFA 10,000 per month anytime I stumbled on something. The welcoming neighbours assured me of a daily flow of food."
Nain had intended her relocation to Bamenda to be a "temporary one".
But five months after relocating to Bamenda, escalating violence forced Nain's six siblings to join her in her makeshift residence in Bamenda. Things started turning sour.
"That seemed to have irked the landlord who started complaining incessantly, citing my irregularity in paying rents, why I brought in my siblings, misuse of the common toilet, why I came back late when the corrugated iron sheet gate is looked," she recounted.
Frida started spending sleepless nights trying to figure out what might have suddenly gone wrong. Her hitherto welcoming neighbours became hostile toward her, denying her food, while she was not lucky to benefit from government's humanitarian assistance.
''Luck shined on me when a Colonial Senator from Boyo came and assisted some IDPs, myself inclusive, with the sum of FCFA 50,000 each, to indulge in income-generating activities so as not to continue to be depended on humanitarian support," she said. The surprise gift helped Nain to start a roadside business -selling roast fish to make ends meet.
"That caused me to start coming back late at nights due to the demanding nature of the business," she recalls.
"But I really doubt whether my misunderstandings with my landlord started there."
Sexual Advances
Nain recalls: ''Before the arrival of my siblings, I had noticed the Landlord was always monitoring me, especially when I was going to take my bath when his wife and the other tenants were away."
"He had even proposed to be my companion at one time, and I politely turned it down reminding him he was like my father who unfortunately had been killed during cross fire shootings in Belo.
"He tried on several occasions to touch me on sensitive areas," she said.
Eviction
Frida got up one fateful morning to receive a one-week quit notice from a landlord notwithstanding the fact that she had become more regular in paying her rents with proceeds from her fish roasting business.
"I think it was my reluctance to give in to his sexual demands that made him expel me and my siblings from his compound," Nain says.
"We were forced to relocate to Foumbot, West Region, where we ventured into farming''.
A new normal for female IDPs
Frida is not alone. Her ordeal is the microcosm of what female Ambazonian IDPs and refugees have been facing since the outbreak of the sociopolitical conflict in 2016, in the domain of finding, getting and keeping housing in host communities and countries.
The conflict pits the colonial francophone-dominated government and nationalists seeking a breakaway state - the Restoration of Ambazonia's stolen independence.
"We got up one morning and saw our shops going up in flames in Widikum of Momo County after night clashes between LRC forces and Ambazonia fighters," narrates Arshley Tasang, refugee from Widikum who relocated to Douala in the Littoral Region of neighbouring la République du Cameroun two years ago.
"We could barely gather any few belongings, especially as the 'boys' had been accusing me of having an affair with a uniform officer," she says.
"I took off for Douala and spent a few days with a friend as I searched for a house. But middle men were only defrauding me under the pretext they were trying to secure cheap accomodation for me,'' Tasang said.
''One day, the Middle man asked me to come so he shows me the accomodation he has secured for me," Tasang recalls.
"When we arrived there, and he explained to the Landlord that I was a refugee from Bamenda, he told us he didn't want people in his compound who have been dealing with Amba, and that being a jobless young lady, he doubted whether I could regularly pay his monthly rents of FCFA 20,000."
Tasang became restless.
For one thing, her female friend who welcomed her had started complaining about her continuous stay with her.
She had said this was straining her relationship with her francophone boyfriend who was assisting her pay the house rent.
Tasang in her desperation, easily gave in to a proposal from the Middle man to lodge her in a hotel for one or two nights.
''The first night he took me out for drinking and in the process, cajoled me that if we spent the night together, he would increase the number of nights for me in the hotel," Tasang said.
"I desparately gave in." "The next morning he left and I never heard from him again," she said. Tasang's trouble in finding accommodation had begun.
There's been an influx of refugees into Douala and other Cameroon cities from the two predominantly Ambazonia with little or no corresponding increase in housing units, Shylock landlords have jumped at it to hike rent prices.
"I was forced to accept one offer for temporary lodging from one boy or acquaintance to another in exchange for my body,' Tasang lamented.
Finding, keeping and losing houses:
Most Ambazonian female IDPs and refugees we talked to narrated heart-wrenching and agonizing stories in finding, keeping and losing housing.
These range from their inability to assure house owners they could pay regularly, through insecure environments to outright stigmatization. Although getting access to affordable lodging had been an uphill task in Cameroon's cities before the outbreak of the conflict, issues have been more complicated for female IDPs and refugees.
Many of the barriers to accessing housing for the teeming female IDPs and refugees remain unattended to by the traditional housing services in the Cameroons.
"Two of us refugees from Mamfe had gone in search of a house at Melen-Yaounde, but the owner opted to rent it out to the boy, claiming the boy could work hard enough to pay his rents of FCFA 15,000 regularly than I could do," says Brenda Ashu, another refugee.
"I had only my eyes to weep," she said.
Another victim of the war from Mankon-Bamenda, Hilda Tuma recounts:
''My six months' rent expired and I wanted to renew the contract, but the landlord refused, claiming he wanted to refurbish the house and increase the rents; and that many more displaced Anglophones were in search of housing where they could pay even years in advance."
