In the deep corners of Manyu County, in what Ambazonians know as Akwaya, a painful cry is rising. It is a cry of abandonment, of neglect, and of a people left to survive on their own. The voice is that of Reverend Fonki Samuel Forba, a respected cleric and former Moderator of the Presbyterian Church, now speaking with visible grief over the fate of his homeland.
Akwaya, a forgotten enclave in Southern Cameroons, stands today as a symbol of state neglect. The area remains cut off from basic development. There are no roads linking the communities to the outside world. There is no electricity. No hospitals. No pipe-borne water. No stable communication network. Life here has been reduced to bare survival.
Rev Fonki paints a grim picture. He describes people trapped in conditions resembling a jungle, where daily life is a struggle and hope is fading. According to him, this suffering did not begin today. It has been the story of Akwaya for decades. However, the current events have escalated the situation to a critical point.
The latest wave of pain comes from repeated incursions by Fulani raiders who are reportedly crossing in from neighbouring Nigeria. These armed attackers have turned villages into battle zones. Homes are burnt. Farms are destroyed. Lives are lost. Families are forced to flee into the bush, abandoning everything they once had.
Even the residence of Rev Fonki himself has not been spared. His compound has faced multiple attacks, a clear sign that no one is safe in this remote part of Manyu. The fear is constant. The people live with uncertainty, not knowing when the next attack will come.
What makes the situation worse is the total absence of state presence. In a region where roads do not exist, even the military struggles to access the area. Soldiers reportedly can only reach Akwaya by helicopter. This alone tells the story of a land completely outside La République’s administrative control.
Communication is another nightmare. Residents depend on Nigerian telecom signals, especially Glo, to connect to the outside world. But even this task comes with its share of struggle. To make a call or access the internet, villagers must climb hills, hoping to catch a weak signal for a few moments before it disappears again.
For many observers within the Ambazonian struggle, Akwaya represents more than just neglect. It reveals a deeper pattern of neglect, leaving remote communities in Southern Cameroons exposed, vulnerable, and unprotected as violence continues to spread.
Rev Fonki’s message is simple but heavy. His people have been abandoned. He states that violence and isolation are further burying a population already pushed down by hardship.
As the crisis in Ground Zero continues, Akwaya stands today not just as a neglected land but as a silent emergency. A place where survival has become the only reality and where the cries of the people struggle to reach a world that seems too far away to listen.
