Bamenda: Gunmen Kill Breadwinner While He Struggles To Provide For Family

 

Elyse Kamta When He Was Alive

By Raymond Dingana

As Elyse Kamta left his home that fateful morning, he embraced his family tightly, promising to return by evening. Little did he know that those would be the last warm moments shared together. 

At La Chance Bridge, where he sought to earn a meager living as an excavator operator, disaster struck. Gunmen descended upon the area, ruthlessly taking his life in a brutal act of violence.

"He begged and begged, but the gunmen turned a deaf ear. His only crime was striving to provide for his family. When did working hard become a reason to die? Those who kill for simply trying to make a living—what have they ever done to create jobs for our people?"

an anguished commercial biker lamented.

Kamta lay lifeless on the ground, while the assailants fled into the shadows. Bystanders could do nothing but capture images, perhaps to remember the stark reality of violence that had claimed another innocent life in the context of the Anglophone Crisis.

Kamta's Body Lying At La Chance After He Was Shot

The loss of Kamta is yet another heart wrenching addition to the growing list of lives innocent lives wasted in a crisis that has left families shattered and communities in mourning. 

As the Anglophone crisis continues to escalate, the once vibrant streets of Bamenda and the North West Region as a whole now echo with sorrow, leaving many to wonder how, despite numerous security checkpoints, such brutality can persist unchecked.

The Senior Divisional Officer for Mezam, Simone Emile Mooh, expressed deep sorrow and condemned the heinous act, vowing that the perpetrators would face justice.

However, for Kamta's family, justice will never heal the wound, or feel the vacuum the death of Elyse Kamta has created in the family.

RIP Elyse Kamta.