Cameroon’s military has killed at least 30 separatists in two days of intense fighting in the turbulent English-speaking North West region, a military spokesman said Wednesday.

The military freed people held by separatists during its two-day operation, military spokesman Col. Didier Badjeck said Wednesday. Fighting was intense in the Mayo Binka area near Nkambe, he said. While no soldiers have been killed, he said the death toll for armed separatists may increase, as fighters escape into the bush.

In a separate incident, the mayor of Nwa, a local council in the same region, was found dead Wednesday and he is believed to have been killed by separatists, said Emmanuel Bunyui, the mayor of the nearby town of Ndu. Many mayors in English-speaking regions have been targeted by armed separatists demanding an independent English-speaking state, which they call Ambazonia.

“When we hoist the Cameroon flag in the council premises, we are targeted by the armed men who insist that we should instead display their blue and white flag,” Bunyui said.

These incidents have highlighted the separatist unrest in Cameroon, which began in 2016, when English-speaking teachers and lawyers in the northwest and southwest staged demonstrations calling for reforms, criticizing what they called the marginalization of the Anglophone population, which accounts for about one-fifth of the country’s 25 million people.

Violence increased after factions of separatists armed themselves following a government clampdown on protests in 2017. Armed separatists have vowed to destabilize the regions and hundreds of civilians have been killed and dozens of schools have been burned and teachers threatened.

In the past year, more than 1,200 people including separatists, police, military and gendarmes have been killed in the fighting, according to military spokesman Badjeck.

Recently 79 students and three staff were kidnapped from a school by suspected separatists, and they have all now been released.

More than 100 civilians have escaped the violence and fled to the capital, Yaounde.

“I am just going to nowhere. I am afraid,” said Kenneth Kongyu, 19, who joined 75 other people who walked 60 kilometers (37 miles) for two days to escape violence in Ndu, Bunyui’s town. “When they come to the market, they shoot from every angle.”

Tatah Oscar, 17, said he is a former fighter. He said many young Cameroonians are joining the separatists because their families have been killed by military “so they don’t have somebody to count on again … I am pleading on the government to try and solve the problem so that we the youths we can go back to school.”

Col. Badjeck, however, said “Most of the time the terrorists operate and hide among civilians and the world has an impression that civilians are being killed, but our military is professional.”

In November last year, Cameroonian President Paul Biya declared the crisis a war. Biya was re-elected to his seventh term in October, although few votes were cast in war-torn Anglophone regions.

Politicians have repeatedly called on Biya to initiate dialogue to stem the violence. The 85-year-old president, who has ruled Cameroon since 1982, has repeatedly stated that Cameroon is one and indivisible and that he is not ready to negotiate.

The conflict poses a serious challenge for Cameroon, a close U.S. security ally in combating extremism and a new member of the U.N. Human Rights Council. The United Nations have condemned both the Cameroon military and separatists for using unnecessary and excessive force and Amnesty International criticized the “horrific escalation of violence” in English-speaking regions.

Nearly a quarter-million more people have fled the ongoing violence, many leaving their homes on foot with their belongings teetering on their heads.

AP

Cameroon’s restive English-speaking regions are emptying out after renewed military raids on separatist strongholds left at least 30 people dead in two days. The renewed fighting comes barely a week after President Paul Biya, during his inauguration ceremony, warned rebels to drop their guns or be killed. Thousands of fleeing civilians are arriving in Yaounde.

Nso and Wimbum people, from the English-speaking northwest region of Cameroon, sing and dance to welcome some of the thousands of people who fled fighting in their villages.

Nineteen-year-old businessman Kenneth Kongyu says he fled in a group of 75 as the military clashed with Anglophone separatists who want to form an independent state they call “Ambazonia.”

“So when we arrived in Berr, we saw about 300 people there. They were even asking me, where am I going let them join me? I said I am just going to nowhere,” he said. “I am afraid, they are killing people every day, both the Ambazonia fighters and the military. When they come to the market, they shoot from every angle.”

Cameroon’s military spokesperson Colonel Didier Badjeck on Wednesday said the death toll from clashes the last few days had increased to more than 30, all of them separatists.

Ambazonian Defense Force spokesman Ivo Tapang told Reuters news agency only two separatist fighters died while their forces killed 13 government troops.

Seventeen-year-old Oscar Tatah says he is a former separatist fighter. He says he was nearly killed when the military attacked their training camp of 80 young fighters in Nkambe.

“Some are joining because they have killed their family members, their father, maybe their mother or their father or their brothers. So, they don’t have somebody to count on again. That is the reason why some are joining. I am pleading on the government to try and solve the problem so that we, the youths, we can go back to school,” said Tatah.

Elvis Tardze, a community leader from Nkambe, notes police often suspect displaced people of being separatist supporters and search their houses.

“People need to continuously cluster together, sensitizing each person or each member of each group or community to do the right thing and doing the right thing is to respect the law and follow the norms. They should avoid being exposed to circumstances. They should be law-abiding,” he said.

During his inauguration on November 6, President Paul Biya told fighters to drop their guns or be killed. He promised to pardon those who stopped fighting.

Political analyst Gabriel Suh says the rebels are showing no signs of surrendering. He says Cameroon may be in for carnage if Biya does not negotiate with the separatists, whose leaders live in exile.

“Why can the government not invite those in the diaspora to come to the negotiating table where there is no intimidation? They can talk one to one, ask them what they need, what they want and what they do not want. We should dialogue amicably,” said Suh.

Some political leaders have called on Biya to initiate dialogue with the separatists. But Biya — who has ruled Cameroon for 36 years — has refused any talks on Cameroon becoming a divided state.

Cameroon, a former French colony, has been troubled by unrest since separatists in two English-speaking regions in 2016 said they wished to form a new country.

Biya declared war on them, calling them terrorists for attacks that killed government troops.

In January, Cameroon extradited from Nigeria the self-proclaimed leader of Ambazonia, Ayuk Tabe Julius, along with 47 of his supporters.

Since then, separatists have been attacking schools, killing and kidnapping teachers, students, and workers to make the English-speaking regions ungovernable.

Culled from the VOA

We live in fear and are traumatised by the fighting in Bamenda. This once peaceful and lively city in Cameroon has become a battleground between government forces and rebels demanding an independent state for the central African nation’s English-speaking minority.

More than half the city’s population of about 400,000 have fled their homes in the last few months, either to safer neighbourhoods or to mainly French-speaking towns and cities unaffected by the conflict.

Protests over the increasing use of French in courts and schools in Cameroon’s English-speaking heartlands, the North-West and South-West regions, morphed into violence in 2017.

A security force crackdown led to some English-speaking civilians taking up arms against the government, led by the French-speaking President Paul Biya.

‘Shot for smoking marijuana’

Now, the sound of gunfire has become familiar, even to two-year-olds, as has the sight of abandoned corpses on the streets of Bamenda, the city with the biggest English-speaking population in Cameroon.

The government says the separatists are “terrorists” who are causing widespread destruction

The image of four boys shot dead by troops just 200m (656ft) from my home has stuck with me.

They were ordinary boys in my neighbourhood who, unfortunately, were caught smoking marijuana, an activity the security forces associate with separatist fighters.

‘Lots of kidnappings’

The security forces are also suspicious of teenagers with dreadlocks or those who look unkempt. It is assumed they have come to the city after receiving military training in the bush.

Even stout men like me arouse suspicion – the logic of the security forces is that if you are well-built, the chances of you being a fighter are greater.

And many parents beg their teenage sons to stop wearing red bandanas or a combination of red and black clothes because the security forces could mistake them for separatist fighters. The colours are associated with the rebels.

Armed groups have sprouted in Bamenda and neighbouring towns. Some of them are made up of separatist fighters, while others are criminal gangs which have exploited the instability.

It is not always clear who is behind attacks, but there are lots of kidnappings of schoolchildren, politicians and other high-profile personalities who, in most cases, are released after a ransom is paid.

Students ‘sneak into schools’

In the latest kidnapping, 80 school pupils, their principal and a teacher were freed after being seized from their school about a week ago.

Separatist fighters denied involvement, but the government blamed them for the abductions.

Tens of thousands of children have been sent by their parents to schools in safer cities and towns.

Separatists have ordered the closure of all schools until the government agrees to hold a referendum on whether the mainly English-speaking regions should become independent.

The security forces have been unable to provide security at schools

A few schools have remained open, but attendance has fallen sharply. In schools where there were around 8,000 pupils there are now 700.

The few brave children who still go to school do so surreptitiously. They do not wear uniforms, and stroll down roads as if they are going to the market before sneaking into classrooms.

Last month, an American missionary and a university professor were also killed in the space of three days in Bamenda.

The main mortuary is often full, mostly with the corpses of civilians caught up in the fighting between the separatists and the military.

No neighbourhood is safe, and I cannot remember the last time I visited my friends. It is as though we have been caged. Sometimes, we are forced to stay at home for days because of battles on the streets.

Cameroon – still divided along colonial lines:

Africa’s borders were “carved up” up by colonial powers

• Colonised by Germany in 1884
• British and French troops force Germans to leave in 1916
• Cameroon is split three years later – 80% goes to the French and 20% to the British
• French-run Cameroon becomes independent in 1960
• Following a referendum, the (British) Southern Cameroons join Cameroon, while Northern Cameroons join English-speaking Nigeria

 Cameroon’s descent towards civil war

We are on edge all the time. I recall returning home from the gym at around 17:45 one day. People were running helter-skelter.

I was perplexed. “Probably there’s a gun battle ahead of me,” I thought, as I advanced cautiously towards the source of the disturbance.

The commotion grew as I approached Nkwen Market, a hotspot in Bamenda. There was a huge traffic jam and I could see people frantically fleeing the streets.

I knew I was taking a risk but had no option other than to go through the market to get home.

Markets in Bamenda remain busy during the day

I learnt later that the regional governor had changed the time of the curfew. It was no longer from 21:00 to 05:00 but from 18:00 to 06:00.

There was no prior warning, so people were rushing to get home, fearing that they would be shot by the security forces if they were still on the streets at 18:00.

‘Roads cut off’

The curfew is intended to restrict the activities of separatist fighters, who take advantage of the darkness to carry out attacks on the security forces.

The conflict has destroyed Bamenda’s nightlife. Some of the city’s off-licences and nightclubs – which were famed to be among the best in Cameroon – have closed down. Others have relocated to French-speaking cities.

The insecurity is even worse in Kumbo, the largest city in the North-West after Bamenda. The two cities – about 110km (70 miles) apart – have been cut off from each other. Separatist fighters are said to have destroyed a bridge, and have also strewn the road with felled trees and large rocks.

Kumbo gets its supplies from Bamenda and my relatives there tell me that its markets have been shut for more than three weeks following fighting between the security forces and separatists.

‘Working days changed’

The separatists also impose what they call “ghost towns”. They are typically observed on Mondays when nothing functions – markets, courts and offices are shut, and vehicles remain parked.

A road damaged by fighting in Bamenda has made it difficult for rubbish to be collected

Many companies have therefore made Saturday a working day to compensate for the lost Monday, but sometimes the separatists order a shutdown for the entire week.

The situation is even worse in small towns like Bafut, Bali, Batibo, Bambui, and Bambili where fierce battles break out, forcing civilians to escape into the bush.

Hundreds of people – civilians, separatists and soldiers – have been killed and about 436,000 have been displaced in the North-West and South-West, with fears that the number will rise as fighting escalates.

I, myself, am under pressure from my family to leave – if not for my sake then for my children’s.

I have resisted the pressure so far, hoping that the government and secessionists make a peace deal so that our lives can return to normal.

Culled from the BBC