There were just sixty mattresses, blankets and buckets available for distribution. Each bucket contained 20 cubes of soap, 2 litres of groundnut oil and 5kg of rice. Over 300 persons had registered to benefit and close to this number was present on the distribution ground with high expectations to carry home a huge booty from the presidential couple.
On the 28th of December 2019, the Head of State President Paul Biya and wife dispatched a consignment of 100 trucks of humanitarian aide to internally displaced and affected persons in the NW and SW regions of Cameroon as Christmas/New Year gift to relief them of their sufferings from the ongoing Anglophone Crisis. The trucks were loaded with food stuffs, sanitary kits and beddings.
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| Hundreds of IDPs & Affected Persons in Mbengwi Scrambling for the Presidential Gift |
On Tuesday January 7th 2020, Fouda Etaba Bernoit Nicaise, Momo's Senior Divisional Officer launched the distribution exercise for Momo Division. It was on the Mbengwi ceremonial grandstand that the event took place. When it was announced through the local community radio station in Mbengwi that IDPs and affected persons should pass by the D.Os office and register, within few days, more than 200 persons stormed the office.
On the day of the exercise, first, that morning, distant gunshots suspected to have been fired by separatist fighters probably to scare the population away from the event ground were heard. Soon businesses in Mile 18, the economic hub of Mbengwi shutdown as activities were grounded. The population didn't go home. Instead people defied fear and the gunshots and went straight to the distribution ground to take home their own share.
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| Authorities Addressing the Population |
While on the grandstand, many more persons; men women and kids kept coming with photocopies of their ID cards to register. Before, when such aid used to be distributed by government, many dreaded collecting for fear of the unknown as separatist fighters have been against the exercise yet at the same time not giving anything to the needy population. These days, people rather scramble for the items.
After explaining to the beneficiaries the source of the items, the Senior Divisional Officer of Momo together with the Divisional Officer of Mbengwi, Sakwe Jarvis Esapa and the mayor of the Mbengwi Council, Tebe Beatrice then proceeded to symbolically hand over the items to the concerned. This was preceded by a back to school message calling on the parents to send their children to school for the second term of the academic year. The D.O said all the school doors have been flung open, all principals and teachers available to teach. Unfortunately, days after, this turned out to be mere propaganda. The doors of all the major nursery, primary and secondary schools in Mbengwi are still closed though informal learning is ongoing in some areas.
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| Mbengwi's D.O, Sakwe Jarvis Handing Gift from Presidential Couple to Pastor Abanda Edwin |
The presidential gift was appreciated by Pastor Abanda Edwin who's hosting five IDPs in his house. He said "I appreciate what the Head of State has done for the population of Mbengwi today. Looking at the number of people here, you realise the items aren't even enough, meaning what we want is for this problem to be solved once and for all so that normalcy returns for people to afford what they need rather than depending on the government"
As to how the crisis can be resolved, the pastor proposed that a meaningful dialogue between the president and the secessionists should be engaged because separatists are the ones with most grievances and are the ones having what frightens the population, guns. With his five IDPs at home, the pastor regrets that feeding them is strenuous considering the melting economy.
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| Insufficient Mattresses for Hundreds of Persons Wanting a Mattress |
Because of the limited quantity of the items, beneficiaries were asked to take either a mattress or blanket plus bucket and its content. Almost all wanted but the mattresses and even with this strategy, over a hundred still went back home empty handed though with the assurance that the distribution exercise will continue in the days ahead. Some of the items from information gotten have been dispatched to Ngie, Widikum, Njikwa and Batibo for the same distribution exercise.
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