Tension and outrage are once again rising in Bamenda following the discovery of the lifeless body of a young man identified as Amanda Bertrand, dumped at the Mile 6 dumpsite in the Bamenda II subdivision on the morning of Tuesday, October 14, 2025.
According to eyewitnesses, Bertrand’s body bore gunshot wounds to the head, back,
and leg, suggesting he was executed before being abandoned at the site. “We believe he was brought there and shot,” one resident told our reporter. “The wounds on his head and back clearly show he didn’t die here.”
Residents say they heard sporadic gunfire around 9 p.m. on Monday, hours before the body was discovered. By dawn, the gruesome scene had drawn a crowd of locals, many of whom expressed fear and anger over what they described as a pattern of extrajudicial killings by security forces of La République du Cameroun operating in the Northern Zone.
Local sources revealed that Bertrand, a native of Mile 27, Bafut, had previously been arrested by security forces days before his death. According to a family member who spoke to our newsroom, the deceased had gone to the police to report the theft of his motorcycle but was instead accused of being an Amba fighter.
“Prior to the election, he went to report his bike being stolen by Amba boys,” recounted a relative. “But the police detained him, accusing him of being one of them. He was transferred to the military camp in Bafut, and that’s where he was shot dead.”
His remains were later dumped at the Mile 6 waste site, further inflaming tensions in a community already weary of military excesses and targeted killings.
While authorities of La République du Cameroun have yet to issue any statement, locals say this is not an isolated case. Similar killings have been reported across Bamenda, with the bodies of young men found on roadsides, farmlands, and abandoned areas—often bearing bullet wounds, and no investigation results have ever been made public.
As the family of Bertrand retrieves his body for burial, anger is mounting over the climate of impunity that continues to reign in the region. Civil society observers and community leaders are once again calling for independent investigations and international attention to the ongoing wave of arbitrary arrests and killings in Ambazonia.
Bertrand’s tragic death adds to the long list of unresolved cases that have come to symbolise the brutality of the ongoing conflict and the collapse of accountability under the Yaoundé regime.
By Lucas Muma
