Not up to 24 hours after the Governor of the South West Region launched war against criminals in Kumba, a gang of armed bandits blocked the road at Mile 7, Ikiliwindi along the Kumba-Mamfe road on Friday night, July 20 stabbing their victims as well as stealing money and cell-phones.

According to one of the victims, Mrs. Obi Catherine who was shot on the hand, she was in the company of three vehicles going to Ekok. When they arrived at a place called Mile 7 at about 1:00 a.m, they saw four people including a lady stopping the vehicles while shooting guns in the air. Mrs Obi Catherine said when they stopped, one of the bandits opened fire on her and a bullet got her on her right hand. The bandit then snatched her hand bag and collected FCFA 250.000, a cell phone and her jewels. The bandits also attacked two other vehicles, stabbing one of the drivers on the back and collecting huge sums of money from the passengers with all their belongings.

Mrs. Obi told CAMNEWS that after the bandit had collected her FCFA 250.000 and discovering that he had shot her, he removed FCFA 10.000 and gave her saying: "Go and treat your hand with this money." At press time, only one member of the gang had been caught. He was caught with a locally-made pistol and bullets. He gave his name as Takwe Etly, 32, a native of Oshie in the North West Region. He claimed to be a student of the Dschang University and he carried out the operation with two others, Catherine and Blaise from Douala, who are still at large.