Mbingo’s Cry of Anguish: Colonial Soldiers Unleash Brutal Torture on Civilians in Retaliation for Amba Ambush
By Andre Momo
In the quiet locality of Mbingo, Boyo County, the heavy hand of President Paul Biya’s colonial soldiers has turned a community’s sorrow into a living nightmare. Following a daring ambush by Ambazonian freedom fighters on August 7, 2025, which left two soldiers dead and others wounded, the Cameroonian military has unleashed a campaign of terror against innocent civilians, betraying their supposed mission to protect and instead waging war on the very people they claim to serve. The denizens of Mbingo, reeling from a week of relentless cruelty, are crying out for justice, their voices echoing the pain of a region crushed under the weight of a 43-year regime that thrives on repression.
According to Mbah Godlove’s harrowing report, the ordeal began when the colonial military commander in Mbingo summoned locals on the morning of the attack, brandishing a phone message that claimed intelligence of an impending strike by freedom fighters. In a chilling ultimatum, he warned that any attack not thwarted by civilian collaboration would result in brutal consequences. True to their resolve, Ambazonian fighters struck minutes later, killing two soldiers and wounding others in a bold assault on the colonial control post. The regime’s forces, humiliated and enraged, turned their fury not on the fighters but on the defenseless population of Mbingo.
What followed was a grotesque display of state-sanctioned violence. Civilians were herded to the control post like cattle, where they faced merciless beatings. Fathers were thrashed in front of their wives and children, their dignity stripped as colonial soldiers vented their frustration. Women, both married and single, endured unspeakable horrors, with reports of rape emerging from bike riders who witnessed the atrocities. The soldiers, deployed to Mbingo ostensibly to combat freedom fighters, have instead declared war on ordinary citizens, threatening to raze their homes if another attack occurs. This is not peacekeeping—it is collective punishment, a tactic ripped from the playbook of colonial oppressors past.
The people of Mbingo deserve our unwavering praise for their resilience in the face of such cruelty. Caught in the crossfire of the Anglophone crisis, they have endured years of marginalization, violence, and neglect from a regime that views the Northwest and Southwest as mere pawns in its quest for control. Their refusal to betray the freedom fighters, despite the commander’s threats, speaks to a courage born of desperation and a yearning for justice. These are not collaborators in a war; they are survivors of a regime that has turned their homeland into a battleground.
Yet, the shame falls squarely on Biya’s colonial soldiers and the regime they serve. These so-called protectors have forsaken any pretense of honor, targeting women and children with a savagery that defies humanity. Their actions—beating fathers, raping women, and threatening to burn homes—are not the work of disciplined forces but of a desperate regime lashing out to mask its failures. President Biya, now 92 and clinging to power after 43 years, presides over a government that has lost all moral legitimacy. The Mbingo atrocities are not isolated; they echo the massacres in Ngarbuh, the burnings in Belo, and the countless abuses documented by human rights groups across the Anglophone regions. The soldiers’ brutality in Mbingo is a stark reminder of a regime that rules through fear, not governance, and a military that punishes civilians for its own shortcomings.
The complicity of those who remain silent must also be called out. Traditional rulers, religious leaders, and elites who continue to prop up Biya’s regime, whether through attendance at Etoudi’s staged summits or quiet acquiescence, enable this tyranny. Their failure to condemn such atrocities betrays the trust of their communities, leaving the people of Mbingo and beyond to bear the brunt of a regime’s wrath.
Mbingo’s suffering is a clarion call to the conscience of Cameroon. The courage of its people, standing firm against threats and torture, is a testament to the unbreakable spirit of the Ambazonian struggle. But courage alone cannot end this nightmare. The international community, long silent on Cameroon’s crisis, must act—impose sanctions, demand accountability, and amplify the voices of the oppressed. To the people of Mbingo: your pain is our pain, your fight is our fight. To Biya’s regime: the world is watching, and your time of reckoning draws near.
