Senseless Killings: Need To Value Human Life

Of late, cases of unjustified killings that defy all forms of explanations have been recorded in some parts of the country. They all began like isolated occurrences. But with time, they have become so recurrent. Reports about the incidents have talked of humans killing others for reasons many are still to come to terms with. And even “normal,” as the public appears too stunned and hapless in the face of the barbaric acts. The fact that they cut across localities make the situation worrisome. Neither are they the “sole preserve” of major towns, cities and other urban centres. Rather, they happen even in some unsuspecting remote places. When investigations finally expose some and they happen to come from close circles, the fear becomes real disturbing. 
Some examples merit being cited to underline not only the gravity, but the unsuspecting nature of the obnoxious acts on fellow humans.  In May 2025, Nicolas T. 42, assaulted his wife, Blandine, 39, in the neighbourhood of Douala. He seized the over million FCFA two million she had just collected from a savings and thrift outfit (commonly known in Cameroon as “njangi” or “tontine.”) Nicolas is said to have stabbed Blandine while she just got up from a deep sleep, and fled after seizing the money, not without leaving the wife bleeding profusely.  
In another locality, a man in Batibo, Momo Division of the North West Region, simply identified as Abi, murdered his wife and buried the body in her farm. The reason behind the act as the population later discovered is because, she had collected FCFA 850,000 from her “njangi” and reportedly refused to give him a portion. Following investigations, the body was later exhumed by the suspect for proper burial under the supervision of security forces. Abi is now in police custody, awaiting trial. These cases bring to mind similar situations in the past with equally devastating consequences in families and the communities where they took place. There is that of April 2023 where a lady trader, Vanessa Youbi Kanga, and her five children, were found dead with throats cut in their home in Nanga-Eboko, headquarters of Upper Sanaga Division in the Centre Region. Bewildered community people and Cameroonians at large questioned the “crime” the poor lady committed to deserve such gruesome death, alongside her kids. The answer to this question remains a mystery until this day because the lone suspect in the murder, a certain Mohaman Lawali, was later discovered dead by hanging. And so the investigation met with a cull de sac.  
As if these were not enough, in March 2023, womenfolk in the remote Ngolya Subdivision of Upper Nyong Division in the East Region stopped going to their farms because, that month alone saw the killing of two women in their farms. So serious was the spike in insecurity in Ngoyla Subdivision in 2023 that the Senior Divisional Officer for Upper Nyong, Joseph Bertrand Mache, called an emergency security meeting. During which he reassured the population of measures being taken to ensure security and persuaded women to return to their farms as food insecurity had already begun to loom.
Macabre cases of this nature have left local administrative officers on their toes. For instance, within the framework of maintaining peace and order, the Senior Divisional Officer for Boumba and Ngoko Division in the East Region, Mochi Johnson Malafa on June 9, 2025 not only issued a statement appealing for calm, but said firm measures have been taken to check any excesses from unlawful individuals.  
The list could even be longer, but the fact remains that human life matters and the growing tendencies whereby certain persons take the law into their hands or simply out of sheer malaise dec...