Monthly Archives: September 2018

Cameroon lurches toward election amid separatist conflict

29, September 2018

Cameroon lurches toward election amid separatist conflict 0

John Nlom has five children and wants to keep them alive. When machete-wielding men attacked a nearby school this month in a suspected strike against the teaching of French, wounded students were rushed to hospitals while frightened parents decided to flee.

Nlom and his family piled onto one of the dozens of buses now leaving daily from the capital of Cameroon’s Southwest Region, joining thousands of civilians escaping bloody fighting between the government and Anglophone separatists who vow to disrupt next month’s presidential elections.

The government of the largely French-speaking country insists the Oct. 7 vote will be peaceful, even in the troubled English-speaking southwest and northwest where nearly 400 people have died. Nlom, a teacher, could not take that chance.

“The governor himself who is saying that people should stay back, that they are protected, he is moving around with soldiers protecting him,” Nlom said. “Will the soldiers protect all the people? That is the reason why I cannot stay.” He and his family, like many, have taken refuge in the French-speaking city of Douala.

President Paul Biya, one of Africa’s longest-serving leaders since taking power since 1982, vows to hold the country together.

The separatists, with support from some in the diaspora in the United States and elsewhere, are fighting to create an independent state they call “Ambazonia” in Cameroon’s English-speaking northwest and southwest regions.

Their movement grew out of dissatisfaction with what some English speakers, who make up about 20 percent of the country’s population, have called marginalization in the officially bilingual country. The blocking of the internet in English-speaking regions for months last year fed the frustrations.

The government describes the fighters as terrorists.

Weary civilians caught in the fighting have pleaded for peace. Women, saying they can no longer remain silent, have gathered for protests, saying the violence keeps children from their studies. At least 70 schools have been burned.

Last week, Muslim and Christian clerics announced they are afraid a wave of carnage could occur if peace is not found before the election. “We call on the diaspora to stop the hate speech communication that promotes violence, suspicion and fear among the people of Cameroon,” their declaration said.

The clerics asked both the military and armed groups to drop their guns and stop the killing, looting and burning that have sent nearly 200,000 civilians fleeing. The government, however, replied that only the separatists should drop their guns.

Attacks were reported in at least 20 towns and villages over the weekend, according to the country’s minister of territorial administration, Paul Atanga Nji. Casualty figures were not yet available, he said.

“We are happy that some of the terrorists have willfully handed their guns to the military and we have forgiven them,” he said. “I call on all those who are still in the bushes to drop their arms and make use of the ballot if they want a change.”

Human rights groups have accused both sides of abuses. Separatists have burned and crushed buses and used construction equipment to dig up roads in efforts to stop people from fleeing. Some people leaving English-speaking regions have said the military conducts searches on those trying to leave.

With the elections approaching, the tensions have grown. Separatists on Friday blew up a key bridge to stop campaign teams from reaching communities, authorities said.

“The only bridge linking the northwest regional capital, Bamenda, with other localities like Bui and Donga was destroyed by the terrorists,” said Lele L’Afrique Deben Tchoffo, governor of the Northwest Region. Thousands of passengers were stranded, he said.

In response, the military killed at least a dozen separatists near the northwestern town of Mbiame as they planted explosives to blow up another bridge, the governor said.

People who have fled the English-speaking regions will not be able to vote if they don’t return to the polling centers where they are registered, he warned.

In Cameroon’s French-speaking areas, campaign rallies kicked off over the weekend in defiance of the separatist threat.

“We should not fear them. We should brave the situation and go about campaigning. The government has deployed troops to protect everyone,” Prime Minister Philemon Yang told supporters in Bamenda while campaigning for the longtime president.

Biya is favored to win another seven-year term, as opposition parties did not succeed in negotiations to back a single candidate. Cameroon’s government has vowed that voting will take place nationwide.

“We have … created polling centers where voters can assemble and vote under the protection of the military,” said the chairman of the country’s electoral board, Enow Abrams Egbe.

AP


Yaounde isn’t responding to a BBC investigation proving its soldiers killed unarmed women

29, September 2018

Yaounde isn’t responding to a BBC investigation proving its soldiers killed unarmed women 0

The government of Cameroon still hasn’t reacted to a recent forensic investigation, led by the BBC and Amnesty International, which claimed to prove that a viral video showing the killing of unarmed women and children was carried out by Cameroonian soldiers.

The video which went viral in July, showed a woman carrying a baby on her back and another one holding a little girl by the hand. They are led to an uninhabited area by a group of soldiers. The one filming the act introduces his colleagues as they lead the women and children to their death; telling them they are members of the Boko Haram terrorist group. “You are going to die,” one of them says. The victims are stopped at some point, blindfolded and shot 22 times.

Back in July, Issa Tchiroma Bakary, government spokesman initially described the video as “fake news” propagated to tarnish the image of Cameroon’s military. Bakary said this in spite of early investigations by Amnesty International which identified the location where the video was shot and matched the military fatigues and weapons in the video to those of the Cameroonian armed forces.

The minister, however, disclosed about a month later that seven soldiers suspected to have been involved in the killings had been arrested. Government declared the incident was being investigated while the soldiers were held in pretrial detention.

Samira Daoud, deputy director of Amnesty International’s West Africa office cast doubts on government claims that investigations would be carried out so that the executioners are eventually court marshaled.

This month the BBC published a report of an extensive investigation it carried out in with Amnesty International, online investigation site, Bellingcat, and others. Going by the report, investigators used satellite imagery to identify the location and time of the killings. They also analyzed the video and with additional information from Facebook, identified three soldiers who they claim pulled the trigger. The soldiers identified were listed among the seven arrested by the Cameroonian government on Aug. 10.

According to the findings, the victims were killed in Karawa, Mafa in northern Cameroon sometime around March and April 2015. Since the release of the report on Sep. 24, the government spokesman who is usually quick to strike back at critics, has not responded to several requests by Quartz for comment.

The investigation report comes at an awkward time for the government as it is currently in campaign mode ahead of Oct. 7 elections. Aside the long-running difficulties with the Boko Haram Islamic terrorists, Cameroon is also dealing with the so-called Anglophone crisis with militant separatists in the northwest and southwest regions trying to create a new English-speaking country which borders Nigeria.

Ilaria Allegrozzi, Lake Chad Researcher at Amnesty International, told Quartz that video evidence is often vital to prove human rights violations and it can definitely be a very powerful tool for human rights defenders, and researchers.

She however noted that accountability cannot depend on video evidence; video documentation cannot become the minimum required evidence needed for concerned authorities to address human rights violations, said she.

“We urge the Cameroonian government to make sure an independent and impartial investigation is conducted on the case. We have seen in the past that all the cases documented with solid evidence by amnesty remained unaddressed and not dealt with. This is an indication of the climate of impunity looming in the country” she stated bluntly.

Source: Quartz Africa


US Keeps Training Cameroon Troops but Urges Accountability in Criminal Probe

29, September 2018

US Keeps Training Cameroon Troops but Urges Accountability in Criminal Probe 0

As Cameroonian authorities investigate horrific crimes that appear to be have been committed by government soldiers in the Far North Region, the U.S. military is calling for accountability while it continues to provide training to its Cameroonian counterparts.

“The Cameroonian government has taken recent steps to increase transparency and address allegations of gross violations of human rights seriously, but the government has not yet released information specific to its investigations,” Pentagon spokeswoman Air Force Maj. Sheryll Klinkel said Thursday in an email to VOA.

The Pentagon is continuing to work with the State Department to “ensure the government of Cameroon holds accountable any individuals found to be responsible,” Klinkel added.

Cameroonian authorities arrested seven Cameroonian soldiers after two videos circulated on social media. One video showed what were alleged to be Cameroonian forces shooting two women and two small children, while another showed what appeared to be Cameroonian security forces shooting at least a dozen unarmed civilians during a counterterror operation in the Far North Region.

An investigation by the BBC used satellite imagery, Channel 4 News footage and clues from the video to assert the killings of two women and two children were committed in the Far North by Cameroonian soldiers between March 20 and April 5, 2015.

U.S. personnel sent

Former President Barack Obama deployed U.S. military personnel to the country about six months after that incident, in October 2015, to help in the fight against Boko Haram.

The Department of Defense still has about 300 military personnel in Cameroon as part of an international effort to stop the spread of violent extremism in West Africa.

In addition to what the Pentagon calls “building partner capacity” through basic military training and equipping, the Defense Department trains foreign troops on the law of armed conflict and human rights.

The Cameroonian Ministry of Defense also takes part in a U.S. government-funded program to train and establish 40 military legal advisers to advance human rights principles and promote security force accountability in the field commands across Cameroon.

Gen. Thomas Waldhauser, head of U.S. Africa Command, cautioned before the Cameroonian government arrests that partnership with the U.S. comes with responsibility.

“We want to have a strong military relationship with Cameroon, but their actions will go a long way toward how that will play out in the future, with regards to the transparency on some of these latest allegations,” Waldhauser said on July 31.

Source: VOA


Open Letter to Prof. Elvis Ngolle Ngolle

28, September 2018

Open Letter to Prof. Elvis Ngolle Ngolle 0

Dear Professor Elvis Ngolle Ngolle,

I have been observing you over the last two years since the Southern Cameroons problem made its way to the global arena and I have always felt I should talk to you, but seeing you on TV sharing your party-based theories and perspectives on this conflict, I have advised myself that it will be a waste of time, as you will never quit your greed-and power-driven monolithic thinking.

I understand you have to toe party lines, but I am sometimes taken aback by some of your statements. The Southern Cameroons crisis is a conflict that concerns every Cameroonian, especially those of us who are from that region. If you and I were living in a normal country, our job would be to bring pressure to bear on the government so that an alternative to the military violence could be sought.

As intellectuals, we are supposed to seek ways of getting both parties to the negotiating table so that some of the vexing issues could be addressed amicably. The issues raised by Southern Cameroonians do not have any party or political connotations. These are issues that have been around for decades and have been begging for a solution.

But from your behaviour and statements, it appears human life has no value and the supreme interest of the state must take a back seat to your selfish and egoistic interest.

What shocked me recently was your statement that supporters of your party in the Southwest region should use secret and supernatural powers to have your party’s message across in a region that is witnessing a lot of fighting and despicable violence.

From this statement, I know you have finally completed the process of masturbating intellectualism out of your system. I was even more surprised to hear you call on courageous young men and women to go from village to village to spread the false gospel that has made of you a disrespected professor.

If you so love this country and your party’s political philosophy, why are you not bringing back your own kids from the U.S.A for them to come and help with your efforts at spreading your party’s heresy in such a dangerous region?

Some of you have decided that our country must be ruined before you leave this world. Your greed and hunger for power have transformed you into a buffoon. For years, your likes have been living in a bubble and that bubble has been burst by Southern Cameroonians.

The people of the southwest no longer have faith in you. You are not representing them and be advised that any decisions you and others take on our behalf will be rejected by the people of our region.

Peter Mafany Musonge, Chief Tabetando and you constitute an axis of evil that is spreading pain, suffering and death in the Southwest region. Your acts will come with karmic consequences and I hope you are aware of this. It is not too late to make amends.

As South-westerners, we are a liberal and a forgiving people. We will be welcoming you to the fold the day you shed your greed and understand that life is more interesting when everybody has a smile on their face.

We are not a vindictive people. Change and we will lift the sanctions we have imposed on you. You have been dinning, wining and dancing with the devil for too long. Make that change and live a decent and simple life.

I look forward to seeing a different you.

Yours Sincerely,

Dr. Joachim Arrey

About the Author: The author of this letter has served as a translator, technical writer, journalist and editor for several international organizations and corporations across the globe. He studied communication at the University of Leicester in the United Kingdom and technical writing in George Brown College, Toronto, Canada. He also studied translation at the Advanced School of translators and Interpreters (ASTI) in Buea, as well as Languages and Linguistics at the University of Calabar, Calabar, Nigeria. He holds a Ph.D.

 

 


28, September 2018

Turkey’s Erdogan tries to turn the page on controversial German visit, but can he succeed? 0

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan arrived in Germany Thursday for a state visit that includes real as well as symbolic attempts to paper over strains in bilateral relations. But it may take more than a few photo-ops to do the job.

What a difference a year, a currency crisis, US tariffs and a standoff with Washington over a detained American pastor can make.

Last year, when German authorities blocked Erdogan from holding campaign rallies in a number of cities, the Turkish president accused his country’s largest EU trading partner of “Nazi practices”. Bilateral relations between the two countries were at an all-time low in the lead-up to the April 2017 Turkish constitutional referendum, with Berlin slamming Ankara’s human rights track record and Turkey accusing Germany of “harbouring terrorists” from the Gulen movement accused of plotting a July 2016 coup attempt.

A little over a year later, Erdogan believes it’s time to bury the hatchet. In an op-ed in the leading German daily, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, on Thursday, the Turkish leader said it was time to “set aside our differences of opinion and concentrate on our joint interests”.

There were the usual displays of rapprochement on Thursday, when Erdogan arrived in Berlin for his first formal state visit as president to Germany. The Turkish president was received with military honours at Berlin airport and whisked through a city under security lockdown as protestors gathered at the airport and his hotel near the Brandenburg Gate.

“Erdogan’s visit, a few months after his overwhelming victory in the [June 24] Turkish presidential election, can also mean: ‘I am an undisputed leader in my country, and I want to be recognised as such on the international stage,’” noted Turkish analyst Jana J. Jabbour in an interview with FRANCE 24 (in French). Following his razor-thin win in last year’s controversial constitutional referendum and international criticism of his post-coup attempt “purges”, Erdogan has been “thirsting for recognition, and that has not changed today”, Jabbour added.

For his voters at home and abroad – especially in Germany, which is home to around 3 million people of Turkish origin – perhaps the most symbolic showing of the latest visit is scheduled for Saturday, when Erdogan officially opens a new, multimillion euro, mega mosque in the German cathedral city of Cologne.

Mega mosque turns troubled symbol of unity

With its towering minarets flanking a neo-Ottoman-style dome that appears to open up like a flower-bud, the Cologne Central Mosque is an impressive sight. But while it was conceived as an emblem of integration, the mosque turned into a symbol of discord for nearly a decade following construction delays, rows between its German architect and Turkish builders, spiralling budgets and opposition from anti-immigrant groups.

© Maja Hitij, AFP | A July 2016 photograph of Cologne’s Central Mosque while under construction

Located in the city’s Ehrenfeld district – a diverse neighbourhood that is home to the vibrant Keupstrasse shopping street better known as “Little Istanbul” – the mosque is run by the Turkish-Islamic Union for Religious Affairs (DITIB).

The powerful DITIB runs more than 900 mosques in Germany and staffs them with imams who do not have to be German citizens and receive their salaries directly from Diyanet, the Turkish government’s religious authority.

Tensions between German authorities and the Turkish religious body have been mounting in recent years with the DITIB accused of serving as the long arm of Erdogan’s government in Germany. Last week, German media reported that the country’s domestic intelligence agency, the Bundesamt fur Verfassungsschutz (BfV), is deciding whether to put the DITIB under surveillance following a series of scandals, including an admission by the religious body that some of its preachers were spying on followers of the exiled Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen, who Turkey holds responsible for the 2016 coup attempt. Gulen however denies the allegations.

The DITIB has repeatedly maintained it is a non-political group and that “few” individual preachers had provided information about suspected Gulen followers to Ankara.

A vote bank to woo

The DITIB-run Cologne mosque, the largest in Germany with a 1,200 congregation capacity, was finally completed last year and opened to worshippers during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan in 2017. But it has not been officially inaugurated – a privilege Erdogan will enjoy over the weekend.

The Turkish president’s inauguration of the Cologne mosque symbolises Turkey’s “pan-Islamist policy”, explained Jabbour, noting that “the advent of the 2011 Arab revolutions prompted Erdogan to believe that an alternative was possible to European integration, namely an Islamic statement of Turkish identity in opposition to the Judeo-Christian Western identity”.

Germany’s Turkish community represents an important vote bank for Erdogan. During the controversial 2017 constitutional referendum, more than 51 percent of diaspora Turks approved changing the constitution to grant the Turkish presidency unprecedented powers. With Germany home to the world’s largest Turkish community outside Turkey, the country has witnessed giant Erdogan campaign rallies in the past, when he often calls on German Turks to reject assimilation and invites them to return home to partake in the Turkish economic boom.

A banquet for ‘a criminal’

But that boom, fueled by overspending and artificially low interest rates, has been going to bust over the past few months with the Turkish lira losing nearly 40 percent of its value this year amid increasing inflation and escalating foreign debt.

Turkey’s summer of economic discontent reached boiling point last month, when US President Donald Trump slapped tariffs on Turkish aluminium and steel imports amid a diplomatic spat over a detained US pastor, Andrew Brunson.

With the economy teetering, Erdogan hopes that his visit to Germany could start a rollback of bilateral tensions that saw Berlin warning German businesses and citizens to avoid Turkey.

But it’s not going to be an easy case for German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who has faced criticism for inviting Erdogan on a state visit. “It seems as though the German government is gearing up to betray once again all those in Turkey who are longing for a free, democratic and secular society,” said Deniz Yucel, a German-Turkish journalist who spent over a year in a Turkish jail, at a media awards ceremony in Potsdam.

Calling the visit “a betrayal”, Yucel noted that German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier would be “hosting a criminal” at a state banquet set for Friday.

Several German opposition politicians are boycotting the banquet, which Merkel herself is not scheduled to attend.

Sensitive to criticisms of Merkel’s inability to stand up to Erdogan due to a migrant deal between Turkey and the EU, German junior foreign minister Michael Roth told a national radio station Thursday that, “We have to talk with each other…There must be no other country outside the European Union with whom relations are so important and yet so difficult.”

The difficulties will be apparent on Saturday, when Erdogan opens the Cologne Central Mosque. German authorities have warned Erdogan against campaigning overtly when he visits Cologne. But that’s a challenge for the consummate Turkish politician who is known to seize every opportunity to turn public events into self-promotional rallies. Against a backdrop of an imposing mosque that took so long to get off the ground, it could present a photo-op that’s hard to resist.

Culled from France 24


Calls for Cameroon’s suspension from the Commonwealth

28, September 2018

Calls for Cameroon’s suspension from the Commonwealth 0

The Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI) and 27 leading civil society organisations have called for Cameroon to be added to the formal agenda of the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group (CMAG). CMAG meets this week in New York and has the power to suspend Cameroon from the Commonwealth; it includes Secretary-General Patricia Scotland, and the foreign ministers of Australia, Barbados, Belize, Ghana, Kenya, Malaysia, Namibia, Samoa, and the United Kingdom.

Civil society is raising attention to indiscriminate killings, arbitrary arrests, detention without recourse to justice, torture, and asserts the Government of Cameroon to be in breach of the Commonwealth Charter, Latimer House Principles, and the Harare Declaration.

David White, CHRI’s London Head commented: ‘CMAG was set up to deal with serious and persistent violators of the shared principles, which is precisely the situation in Cameroon. This is a call from civil society for the the Secretary-General and CMAG to act in defence of the very values that bind our Commonwealth together.’


No EU observers for Cameroon presidential election

28, September 2018

No EU observers for Cameroon presidential election 0

The European Union will not deploy observers to Cameroon for next month’s presidential election due to limited resources, the agency confirmed.

The worldwide actor in international election observation has said in a mailed response that it was obliged to prioritise the beneficiary countries.

“An election observation mission of the European Union is indeed not scheduled for Cameroon for the presidential elections on October 7. In general terms, resources are limited,” the EU Delegation to Cameroon confirmed.

However, the EU said it was still ready to deploy observers for subsequent elections should the government invite them on time.

“We remain, of course, available for further discussion [with Cameroon] on electoral issues and on the broader reform process,” the EU said.

An invitation

“Should the Cameroonian authorities issue an invitation, we might be able to consider the possibility of an observation mission or an electoral experts mission for the legislative elections scheduled for 2019,” the EU promised.

An African Union (AU) mission has been assessing the electoral process in Cameroon. The 12-member long-term observation mission arrived on September 5 and will remain in the country until October 19, “to comprehensively assess the electoral process in line with the African Union Long Term Election Observation Methodology,” according an AU statement.

The Long Term Observation Mission, consisting of four core team of analysts and eight Long-Term Observers (LTOs), will be joined by a Short Term Observation Mission close to the polls, from September 28 to October 10.

Nine candidates, including the incumbent President Paul Biya, are in the race after being cleared by the polls agency, ELECAM, out of 28 aspirants.

No movement

The nine candidates and their supporters have been crisscrossing the country since the official launch of campaigns last Saturday to woo potential voters with their various manifestos.

Observers say the failure by the opposition to present a single candidate increased the chances of the incumbent as Cameroon has a one-round election system. A candidate only requires to garner the most votes to be declared winner.

Separatists have threatened to impose a ‘state of emergency’ on the troubled English-peaking Northwest and Southwest regions ahead the vote.

Anglophone separatist activists who have been clamouring for secession and the creation of the Republic of Ambazonia, have warned that they would not allow any election organised by the Yaoundé regime to take place in “their country”.

They have also announced there would be no movement in and out of the territory from September 25 to October 10, but the government has vowed that the election would take place in a serene atmosphere nationwide.

Source: The East African



Southern Cameroons Crisis: Will the Catholic Church Play Peacemaker in Cameroon?

28, September 2018

Southern Cameroons Crisis: Will the Catholic Church Play Peacemaker in Cameroon? 0

Since 2016, Cameroon, the West African state most famous for its soccer prowess, has descended into conflict. With the country voting in an already discredited presidential election on 7 October, the need for strong leadership from the Catholic Church has never been greater.

The roots of the conflict

Cameroon’s English-speaking minority claims it has been increasingly marginalized by the Francophone majority since gaining independence. Of 32 cabinet members, only one is Anglophone, even though English speakers represent 20% of the population. In 2016, the government tried to impose Francophone judges in the Anglophone region’s courts, and to force the French language on its schools. This led to peaceful civil protests such as strike days when shops and schools closed. The authorities responded with disproportionate force, inadvertently fueling a militant secessionist movement. An example of this heavy-handed reaction, as reported by the impartial human rights watchdog, Crisis Group, was a government helicopter hovering over a church, shooting unarmed worshippers as they emerged.

The conflict deepens

The security situation is deteriorating rapidly. Dozens of secessionist leaders who were detained in January remain incommunicado, adding to Anglophone grievance. A recent Amnesty report describes the army’s scorched earth tactics, with 106 villages in the North West and South West regions raided, looted, and burned. Their ethnic cleansing strategy is working: 200,000 have fled into the bush, while 20,000 are in refugee camps in Nigeria.

Social media heightens the sense that English-speakers are being persecuted. Stories of government soldiers torturing and humiliating Anglophones are common, as are disturbing videos of human rights violations circulating online. In this tense atmosphere, there are rumours that political prisoners are being sprayed with chemicals that make them unwell. Cameroon authorities have reportedly denied visas to the International Committee of the Red Cross. On September 10th, soldiers demanded that doctors at Bamenda hospital hand over wounded patients, suspecting them of being rebels, rather than civilians caught in cross fire. There are also unconfirmed reports from the Africa-based Centre for Human Rights and Democracy that the government now requires Anglophones to have internal travel permits. Amnesty estimates 400 people have been killed, although sources in Cameroon believe the figure is much higher, claiming that there are mass graves in the bush.

The authorities’ harsh response to early peaceful protests has led to a polarization of opinion within the besieged Anglophone community. Secessionists are now using extreme violence, targeting security services and government representatives, and punishing civilians who fail to back their vision of a new independent Anglophone country called Ambazonia. Schools not participating in the general strike are being attacked, with 70 torched since 2016. Teachers and students have been seized, and parents are withdrawing their children from schools. The principals of several secondary schools have been kidnapped as retribution for keeping schools open. On an anecdotal level, a Catholic nun reports to your correspondent that her town is surrounded by forces from both sides, effectively holding civilians hostage; people who have fled to camps fear imminent attack; and members of the Diaspora worry constantly about the safety of their family back in Cameroon.

Although the Anglophone Diaspora has appealed to the UK, its former colonial power, it is clear from answers to Parliamentary questions from Lord Alton among others that Britain will go no further than appealing for dialogue. In the run up to Brexit, establishing trading relations is a priority; in June, the government announced that UK interests had signed a natural gas deal with Cameroon worth £1.5 billion. Furthermore, the international community is unlikely to apply pressure to Cameroon’s leader, Paul Biya, while his country’s troops are battling the Islamist terrorists, Boko Haram, in the Lake Chad region.

What can the Catholic Church do?

The church commands the respect of all sides of the population; it is seen as a legitimate voice of civil society. From the beginning of the current crisis, Anglophone faith leaders have called for inclusive talks aimed at finding a peaceful, federal approach, devolving some powers to disenfranchised English-speaking regions. These calls were first ignored and then rejected by Biya’s government. As secessionists have adopted increasingly violent means, the Francophone authorities have hardened their position, refusing to negotiate with terrorists.

The 85-year-old Biya will most probably be re-elected in October, after a process that will fail to meet international standards of free and fair elections, as it usually does in Cameroon. Observers fear that the closing days of the election campaign may spark even more violence. Biya, who has been in power since 1982, seems determined to ignore Anglophone calls for dialogue. Meanwhile, it is noticeable that few French-speaking faith leaders have expressed solidarity with their opposite numbers in the Anglophone region, or have put pressure on Biya to compromise.

In November there will be a conference of faith leaders, convened by the Anglophone churches. This is an opportunity for French-speaking Catholics to join moderate Anglophones in calling for inclusive dialogue to resolve the country’s crisis by non-violent, constitutional means. The church is in a unique position, with the moral authority to push the government into negotiations. The continuing disengagement of many Francophone faith leaders is unhelpful at best. While brave Anglophone priests and bishops demonstrate the courage to seek a peaceful and moderate way forward, they deserve the active support of their fellow religious leaders among the French-speaking majority.

Source: Independent Catholic News


Why video evidence should not be the only thing that forces the Biya regime to investigate human rights violations

27, September 2018

Why video evidence should not be the only thing that forces the Biya regime to investigate human rights violations 0

On July 12, Amnesty International released a detailed analysis in response to the emergence on the internet of a video depicting the execution of two women and very young children by Cameroonian armed forces. One of the children was killed strapped to a woman’s back, each executed by the same deadly hail of bullets.

The horror depicted in the recordings hit the international headlines, and the government immediately replied, dismissing the video as “fake” and designed to “tarnish the image of Cameroon’s defense forces.” Eventually, the government promised to look into the video and reported later on having arrested seven soldiers in connection with the event.

Less than a month later, another video came to the attention of Amnesty researchers, this one depicting a “kamikaze” reprisal mission, as jokingly described in the recording by one of the soldiers. The video documents the movement of soldiers on foot and vehicles through a village. Midway through the recording, with structures burning in the background, we witness the execution of a dozen people, sitting and laying against an exterior wall.

Then too, Amnesty released a statement condemning the executions carried out by Cameroonian armed forces. This time, rather than immediately dismissing the newly emerged video as fake, the Minister of Communications said the government would open an investigation, though at the same time claiming the government was facing a “campaign of denigration.”

As human rights investigators increasingly handle video and photographic evidence in the course of their work, the methods used to authenticate the “who, what, where, and when” of these materials have become more and more sophisticated. This authentication work is crucial as it is not uncommon for video or other material to be “fake” — staged, manipulated, edited or — quite frequently — from somewhere else.

Sometimes, it is material misattributed from another place or time. Or it may be a piece of content may show something, but whether it is evidence of a human rights abuse is ambiguous. Like other types of evidence, video and photographic material whose origin or history is unclear is treated with the rightful skepticism by investigators, precisely because misinformation is increasingly manifesting in visual form.

How we authenticated

In the case of the two recent Cameroon videos, the “what” is undeniable — the unambiguous executions of unarmed men, women, and children.

As to who the perpetrators are in the videos. Amnesty International investigators visually identified uniforms, weapons, other equipment, and military ranks, and were all known to be associated with, or belong to, Cameroonian security forces. In one of the videos, identification of the Zastava M21, an automatic rifle that is rare in Africa but used by a small section of the Cameroonian army, was an important clue. Analysis of the audio dialogue — accents and local languages spoken — was consistent with visual findings, and there can be little doubt that in both videos, the Cameroonian security forces were direct participants in the crimes recorded.

As to when and where the videos were taken, it is more generally difficult to conclude either with certainty without some knowledge of the other. In the case of the most recently released video, investigators identified possible locations through verbal cues in the recording and review by local contacts. Importantly for corroboration, the person recording the video walked for some distance while filming. This allowed analysts to identify many visual cues in the video — road intersections, oddly shaped buildings, trees, among others — as well as their spatial relation to each other.

Analysts at Bellingcat — a collective of online investigators using open source and social media — also working to locate the video — identified a possible location: the village of Achigachia. To independently verify the location, Amnesty investigators took the visual cues taken from the video and plotted against satellite imagery of Achigachia to determine if there was a perfect overlap. There was, including at the exact coordinates in the village where at least 12 people were executed against a wall by a barrage of automatic gunfire. In a longer version of the same video, which surfaced later, the soldiers themselves named the village where the events occurred.

With the confirmation of where the executions took place, the question became whether we could narrow the time in which the crime occurred. With no references to the date, season, or even the year in the video or audio, investigators again relied on satellite imagery. Since the “kamikaze” mission documented in the video included the burning of buildings, an Amnesty satellite imagery expert scanned imagery archives of the town to determine whether burning was evident at those precise points. With luck, two images taken close in time to each other in January 2015 captured the town before fires, and after.

The false-colour images above highlight the near-infrared band. Healthy vegetation appears red while unhealthy, or burned areas appear black and brown. On 10 January 2015, the burning structures from the video appear intact. On 26 January 2015, the structures appear burned.

Thus, through careful and detailed analysis, we concluded that the second video was taken in Achigaya between 10 and 26 January 2015 and depicts extrajudicial executions at the hands of Cameroonian security forces.

Why the videos should not have mattered more than previous violations

In today’s media-saturated world, one of the most notable characteristics about these recordings — aside from the uniquely horrifying events they document — is when they were captured. These videos did not capture breaking events. They are both years old.

In response to the video of the execution of the women and children, the UN’s High Commissioner for Human Rights stated:

“The government of Cameroon has an obligation to investigate this atrocious crime urgently…I am deeply worried that these killings captured on camera may not be isolated cases.”

Indeed, they are not isolated cases, and in most respects, the videos do not reveal an unknown pattern. In September 2015 and again in July 2016, Amnesty issued extensive reports documenting widespread abuses by Cameroon’s security forces in the course of their fight against Boko Haram: arbitrary detention, torture, disappearances, and the killing of civilians.

Over the last 2 years, Amnesty has continued documenting abuses amounting to war crimes by the Cameroonian security forces operating in the Far North and elsewhere. Just as the crimes depicted in the videos are unambiguous, so too are the crimes documented by Amnesty and others over the intervening years since they were first recorded.

While it is not uncommon for additional evidence to emerge after a report publication, this instance is notable because of the attention received in news media, likely a result of the abject cruelty the videos depict. While the government has made initial statements at least paying lip-service to accountability, it should not come only in response to the emergence of video, 3 years after the fact.

While video evidence can be a powerful tool for human rights defenders, and digital connectivity is empowering ever-larger segments of humanity to document the struggles they face, there is a risk. Video documentation cannot become the minimum evidentiary standard that compels governments and authorities to act in the face of abuses by police or security forces.

The absence of a meaningful response by authorities to these horrific acts is part of a larger pattern of unwillingness or inability to hold the perpetrators to account in Cameroon’s fight against Boko Haram. Such an atmosphere of impunity causes the horrific acts witnessed on the videos and documented in extensive reporting. And it leads to equally horrific acts that are not captured in video and will never similarly capture the attention of news media and the broader public.

Scott Edwards is a Senior Crisis Adviser at Amnesty International based in Washington DC.



Cameroon’s Nigerian Refugees Return to School as Boko Haram Worries Fade

27, September 2018

Cameroon’s Nigerian Refugees Return to School as Boko Haram Worries Fade 0

Nigerian refugee children have returned to schools on Cameroon’s northern border as the threat of attacks from Boko Haram Islamist militants has reduced. But some feel it is still not safe enough to return home.

On a bright Monday morning at the government primary school in the Minawao Refugee Camp, thousands of children gather for their morning assembly.

They pray and listen to news about their school, the camp, their host country Cameroon, and their country of origin — Nigeria.

School sign board at Minawao.
School sign board at Minawao.

They are among some 75,000 Nigerians, most of them women and children, who fled Boko Haram Islamists to live along Cameroon’s northern border.

Traumatized

But even inside the refugee camp, the fear of Boko Haram attacks kept school enrollment last year to around 10,000 children. Many students were too traumatized to study while security forces also worried the militants could infiltrate the schools.

School built at Minawao by UNHCR.
School built at Minawao by UNHCR.

In the last year, Boko Haram attacks have drastically reduced. And, since the school year began on September 3, the children at the camp’s schools has nearly doubled to 20,000.

Teacher Lawrence Nyamnjo says with only 190 teachers, they are now more concerned about resources than suicide bombers.

Teacher Lawrence Nyamnjo being interviewed.
Teacher Lawrence Nyamnjo being interviewed.

“Problem of teachers, infrastructure, even of school kits since the children don’t buy,” said Nyamnjo.

Nyanmjo says they are waiting for the United Nations Refugee Agency to help provide school supplies.

Positive change

The United Nations Children’s Fund representative in Cameroon, Jacques Boyer, visited the refugee camp schools along with the Korean ambassador. He says they noticed a positive change in the children.

“Four months ago, I was in this same place, these children were sad, traumatized,” he said. “What we have witnessed with her excellency the ambassador of Korea is smiles on their faces. Children, four months ago were drawing people with weapons and drones, now they are drawing flowers, houses, so for us it is important on the psychological aspect that this change occur.”

The Boko Haram conflict has displaced about 200,000 people in northern Cameroon.

But while there has been no major Boko Harm attack in the past year, only about 8,000 Nigerian refugees have felt safe enough to return home.

Harisa Aisatousays she wants to be journalist.
Harisa Aisatousays she wants to be journalist.

Hope of return

Nigerian student Emma Hamadou, 11, fled from the Nigerian town of Banki three years ago after Boko Haram fighters torched the houses, markets and schools.

She says, when it is safe, she dreams of returning to her country to teach friends that Boko Haram’s opposition to western education is wrong.

“I am in group five. I come here for learning. When I finish my school, I will want to be a teacher,” she said.

Cameroon on September third re-opened 40 schools on its northern border with Nigeria that were sealed for four years because of Boko Haram threats.

While the central African state says the Islamist threat has drastically reduced, it warns people should remain vigilant and report any suspects.

Culled from the VOA


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