101 Hectares, Two Communities: Inside Buea’s Ewonda Land Dispute
By Nchendzengang Tatah
The land saga between Ewonda village and Lower Ewonda, a recently rehabilitated village, has inundated the news for the last five years. It appears to get complicated only every other day, with both parties holding fast to their claims about what they believe are their ancestral portions.
The land in question, about 101 hectares, sits on the lower flanks of Mount Cameroon in the South West regional capital, Buea.
On October 13, gendarme officers stormed Ewonda, arresting youths over claims of trespass and destruction. Lower Ewonda says the arrests of Ewonda youths are justified by their defiance of an injunction order on portions of the contested land. They blame Ewonda youths for destroying infrastructure on the said piece of land, which video evidence supports.
However, the Ewonda youth leader, Efome Ferdinand, has maintained that the youths of his community have not orchestrated any destruction.
Even so, Lower Ewonda asserts that several youths without Ewonda origin have been recruited into the fight, engineering the conflict. They further claim many others in the fight are strangers to Ewonda and hold influential customary positions in other villages.
Administrative scandal
Molua Njie Joseph, an elderly man who has often spoken on behalf of Ewonda, considers the saga an “administrative scandal.” Molua has warned that the conflict may result in bloodshed if urgent measures are not taken to resolve it.
The two communities, being at loggerheads, cannot be separated from administrative procedures that have accompanied the conflict. Besides what some describe as compromise of the local administration in the matter, the back-and-forth of the Ministry of State Property, Surveys and Land Tenure has made matters even more weary.
It is important to note that some nine suspended land certificates of the contested land have been reinstated. Minister Henri Eyebe Ayissi, in correspondence dated June 30 to Lower Ewonda, represented by its traditional ruler, Chief Paul Molua Tonga, suspended an earlier order that had nullified nine land titles of the latter.
Initially, on November 11, 2025, Minister Eyebe Ayissi had nullified seven land titles obtained by Lower Ewonda. Land Certificates N° 016324, 016326, 016327, 016328, 016329, 016330 and 016332/Fako were withdrawn for administrative error and fraud, as explained by the decision. Following this was another order on March 4, 2026, that cancelled Land certificates N° 016325 and 016331/Fako addressed to Lower Ewonda village.
The separate orders stated that the land titles were found irregular based on the existing protocols bearing the establishment of such. The ministerial text had declared the procurement an illegal issuance, as explained by its disregard for a petition of October 3, 2024, duly received at the mail service of the cabinet of the minister, in appeal against a regional order on the land in question.
It remains unclear what may have informed the latest reversal by the Lands Minister. Nonetheless, the Lower Ewonda community say they have colonial relics backing their case, including German-planted boundary blocks and other historical documents.
Path to lasting peace
When asked about the way out of the current dilemma, Chief Paul Molua Tonga maintained that dialogue was the only corridor to peace. The chief cum pastor is hoping that his contenders will embrace a call to dialogue when it is eventually initiated in the coming days.
But peace for Ewonda may mean that they regain possession of the disputed land. They say it is time for the highest authority of the country, the President of the Republic, to step in and arbitrate. The economic and social hardship imposed on them by the uneasy access to the believed ancestral heritage is equally worrisome.
Njume Luma, an elderly Ewonda woman, sees more than economy in the contested Ewonda land. It reminds her of her late mother who passed after learning of the issue. Even though some time has gone by, the pain is nowhere over when she can barely afford food and other basics, detached from her lifewire: the farms.
Caught in the puzzle are the youths whose inheritance is being threatened either way. Efome Ferdinand has said it was about time for justice to prevail. He promised harder days ahead for those he calls “intruders” on the land, stating that they will not relent till they have full possession of the land.
Origin of Conflict
Lower Ewonda was rehabilitated by a decision of the Fako SDO, Viang Mekala, on March 11, 2024. The said order rehabilitated a total of 15 villages, including Mbinde, a similar scene of a violent land conflict. Mbinde in Buea subdivision, by official accounts, is expected to cover some 710 hectares. Part of it currently bears land certificates for Meveo Me Mbenge, another village in Limbe 1 subdivision.
Chief Tonga believes that Lower Ewonda has always existed. He says a land transaction in 1996 by his father bore Ewonda Mbenge (Lower Ewonda). Secondly, he advanced that the boundary fence of the village is constituted by decades-old giant trees. Finally, he claims Lower Ewonda to have been gazetted by the Germans with existing colonial pillars.
Ewonda has maintained that Lower Ewonda has never existed. Letters all dated in 2025 from neighbouring villages such as Buea, Bokai, and Bova 1 do not acknowledge Lower Ewonda’s historical existence. A similar stand is held by a 2021 report by the Buea Subdivisional Conference of Chiefs, where Lower Ewonda is identified as one of three quarters that make up Ewonda village. The report further explained a migration from Lower Ewonda to Ewonda by early settlers.
As the conflict continues to take new twists, it has become important for serious government scrutiny, appreciating the facts on the ground and working for a peaceful resolution of the conflict before it escalates with deaths.
