US based Cameroonian scholar, Dr Chiabi Emmanuel killed in Bamenda

Cameroonian scholar, Dr Chiabi Emmanuel, was on the night of Wednesday March 15 shot by gunmen in Bamenda, Mezam Division of the North West Region.



Family sources say the revered historian was shot, just as he entered the gate of his residence during the evening hours of the fateful day at New Road in Nkwen, Bamenda III Subdivision.

The Guardian Post gathered that Dr Chiabi had just returned home after he went out in search of cooking gas. The gun shot that left the academic, struggling in a pool of his own blood, drew the attention of his family members and people in the neigbourhood.

He was rushed to a health facility in Nkwen Bamenda, but later gave up the ghost after losing so much blood, we gathered. A video of the scene of the act which surfaced on social media a day after the academic was shot, showed a bullet shell and stains of the blood.

Dr Chia, a Fulbright Scholar had lectured at the University of Yaounde I and later took up residence in the United State of America, USA. The historian was pioneer president of Afo-a-kom USA, a cultural and development association grouping Kom sons and daughters, from Boyo Division in the North West Region, resident in the USA.

The association’s current president, Promise Kimeng Yong, in a condolence message, described the late Dr Chiabi as a ‘baobab that has fallen’. “It is a sad day for Afo-a-kom USA,” PK Yong said.

“While we struggle to swallow this bitter pill of the tragic exit of someone who was literally, ‘the Father of Afo-a-kom USA’, we plead on everyone in our entire Afo-a-kom community, to put his family in their thoughts and prayers,” he added.

Meanwhile, human rights advocate, Barrister Agbor Nkongho, in a message published Friday, condemned the killing, describing it as despicable and unacceptable.

Also, renowned Cameroonian lawyer, Akere Muna tweeted: “Grief stricken this morning by the brutal murder of Prof Chiabi in Bamenda. A fine gentlemen and pristine academic”.

Suggesting that he may have been killed by armed separatists, passing for armed men fighting for a breakaway state in the North West and South West Regions, known as Ambazonia, the 2018 presidential candidate burst out: “I care less about what you are fighting for or even who you claim to be protecting. You do not respect human life? You are nothing but a terrorist”.

The Guardian Post