[17] By January 2021, Cameroon was gradually achieving what a security analyst at the University of Yaoundé called "relative peace" in Bamenda,[4] and the mayor of the city stated that the operation was succeeding.

[3] However, as of March 2021, separatist-imposed ghost towns remained widely respected by the local population,[18] and separatists controlled most roads leading in and out of Bamenda.

[19] Throughout the Anglophone Crisis, armed separatists had used motorcycles to carry out hit-and-run attacks against soldiers and police officers,[20] and the Cameroonian security forces wished to deprive them of bases of operation in the city and its vicinity.

[21] On September 4, the Mayor of Bamenda outlawed motorcycles in the city, to which separatists responded by threatening to bring all traffic to a halt.

[26] In late-September, the Cameroon Bar Association accused the army of extorsion and intimidation of civilians, arbitrary arrests, assault, torture, and denying detained persons access to lawyers.