Another man who fled to Yaoundé said he had endured a series of atrocities before finally giving up and packing his family of four into his brother’s living room. Eleven people are now jammed into the small apartment, where he has hung a poster of numbers for his 4-year-old daughter. She has forgotten how to count to 10 after being out of school for so long.

In Mile 16, schools have been closed for two years. The man, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of being targeted, said he had repeatedly run into roadblocks from separatists and shakedowns from soldiers who came to homes and helped themselves to laptops, televisions and cash. They even took soda without paying from a 12-year-old girl running a small store near his office, he said.

“We’re working for you,” he said they told her. It was a small thing, but he was outraged.

Then he saw a body floating down a nearby stream, and that of a soldier at a traffic circle.

But what finally pushed him to escape was the aftermath of gunfire as soldiers, shooting wildly, chased two men on motorcycles. One of the bullets entered his neighbor’s living room window and struck and killed a teenage boy watching television.

When asked if he was going to vote Sunday, the man’s eyes widened.

“For what?” he said. “I’ve been voting for years and the results have never changed.”