Mambanda denizens flee village over false Boko Haram alarm

Fear gripped villagers of Mambanda, a village along the Kumba-Loum road, on Monday March 2, 2015 after news broke that Boko Haram terrorists have invaded their town.

According to our source, Mambanda villagers fled into nearby bushes as news spread among village folks.

Apparently, the villagers mistook the passage through the village of several military vehicles in the early hours of the morning as an invasion by elements of Boko Haram.

It however emerged that the troops were military trainees from Man-o-war Bay in Limbe who were being transported to Koutaba in the West region; they spent the night in Kumba and were early that morning traveling through the Kumba-Loum road that passes through Mambanda.

As the military vehicles were speeding passed Mambanda, some villagers who woke up early to go to their farms saw the military trucks and thought the village had been invaded by militants of Boko-Haram.

The alarm that was raised immediately created pandemonium in the whole community with villagers running helter-skelter to seek refuge in the thick forests.

Villagers said they alerted their neighbours by either shouting or via telephone.

Some villagers told this reporter later that when they were awaken by the pandemonium, they abandoned their homes for the forests because they feared Boko-Haram had ceased Kumba and were advancing to other areas. Others said they just ran into the forest without caring to know the cause for the alarm.

Some villagers said they spent the whole day in the forest and only came out when they were sure that the troops were not Boko-Haram militants.