Tah Jervis Mou: His whereabouts unknown
By Chinje Hopeson
As the Anglophone crisis which morphed into a bloody armed conflict in 2017 continues to rage on in the two English speaking regions of the country, health and aid workers have been bearing the brunt of the conflict.
Often accused of collaborating with armed Ambazonia fighters who are pushing for the creation of a separate state, health personnel have regularly come under government sledgehammer.
While some health workers accused of links with Ambazonia fighters, are being arrested and detained under life-threatening conditions, others have simply gone underground.
In December 2021, the Cameroon Ministry of Defense had in a communique accused the international medical charity, Doctors Without Borders, MSF of collaborating with separatist fighters in the South West Region of the country.
Earlier in August 2021, the Cameroon government had suspended the Doctors Without Borders from operating in the North West Region.
The government had accused the medical charity of treating wounded armed fighters in health facilities in the conflict regions.
Though the group refuted the allegations, their activities have since been suspended in the region.
The international organisation is not alone. Individual health workers have also come under government spyglass for same accusations.
This is the case of Tah Jervis Mou, a local nurse serving with the Weh District Hospital, Fungom Subdivision, Menchum Division of the North West Region.
Trouble began for Mou earlier this month.
Jarvis who was serving as health care assistant at the Weh District Hospital was arrested and held in police detention for six days.
We gathered that Jervis Mou alongside his co-workers were arrested after state security forces raided the hospital while they were administering treatment on wounded separatist fighters who had sustained injuries in clashes with soldiers.
During the raid, we learnt that a patient under Jervis Mou’s care was shot dead by the soldiers while he was arrested alongside five of his co-workers.
After being detained for days, Mou was unfortunate to have been released after his family secured bail for him.
But it wasn’t the case for the five other workers who were denied bail.
It was gathered that the five arrested workers were later slammed with heavy jail terms after being arraigned before a military judge.
Meanwhile, during the legal proceedings against the five workers, security forces are said to have waged a manhunt of Mou. The soldiers, we learned had made several rounds at his residence in Weh. During one of the raids, his mom who was unable to produce his son, was arrested and taken to an unknown detention.
If rearrested, Jervis Mou will be tried in a military tribunal, under the 2014 anti-terrorism law, whose maximum punishment is the death sentence.
That is if he is not killed outright, like many others who have been victims of extrajudicial killings, within the context of the armed conflict in the North West and South West regions.
