Anglophone Crisis Cameroon: Tempers rise in Akwaya as locals demand the release of their traditional authority -Justice Ayah Paul Abine

Distressing phone calls from Akwaya, Southern Cameroon. Tempers are flaring. Teachers and principals have been chased out from a few schools that reopened today. Some schools have been burned down and there are attempts by villagers to spill over their anger into neighboring Manyu villages.

The villagers want one thing -- the release of their traditional authority and statesman Justice Ayah Paul Abine. Others are calling for the release of Dr. Agbor Balla and Dr. Fontem, we were informed on a phone line to Akwaya.

Senior journalist and interim consortium leader Tapang Ivo writes, administrative officers in Akwaya have gone into hiding, a phone caller confirms. The people have vowed that the mother will not sleep because the child does not sleep, they say.