Bamenda, Cameroon – On the day of Cameroon’s last presidential election in October 2018, then-16-year-old Annie Nsalla* watched from her sitting-room window as Anglophone separatist fighters wreaked havoc in the streets of Bamenda, firing gunshots and threatening voters to deter them from reaching polling stations.

It was the first time an election was taking place since armed conflict erupted in the English-speaking minority North West and South West regions in 2016.

As people rushed away in panic, Nsalla dropped to the floor to avoid stray bullets, slowly crawling to the safety of her bedroom.

The violence she witnessed that day left a scar, she says, with the trauma still etched in her memory.

During the nearly decade-long conflict, Nsalla has also lost at least three relatives

See Full Page