Monthly Archives: March 2019

2, March 2019

US Assistant Secretary for African Affairs expected in Yaounde ⁰

The US Department of State announced on Thursday that the Assistant Secretary for African Affairs, Tibor Nagy, was due to visit four African countries this month.

The diplomat will be in Central, East and southern Africa, the press statement noted. Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of Congo, DRC; Uganda and Rwanda will be his destinations.

“He will promote stronger business ties between the United States and Africa, engage Africa’s vibrant youth, strengthen partnerships that aim for greater peace and security, and reinforce the United States’ commitment to the people and nations of Africa,” the statement noted.

On March 17–18, Assistant Secretary Nagy will visit a U.S.-owned firm in Cameroon, discuss Cameroon’s role as a regional partner with government officials, and meet civil society.

But before arriving in Africa, he will be in Belgium and France where he is expected to discuss the U.S. shared objectives for Africa’s security, prosperity, and self-reliance with key partners and media in Europe.

Africa News

2, March 2019

Investigation into Biya regime killings wins Royal Television Society award ⁰

An investigation led by Emmanuel Freudenthal (MPhil in Development Studies, 2007) and colleagues into mobile phone footage of the brutal killings of two women and their children in Cameroon has won the 2019 Royal Television Society’s (RTS) News Technology award.

The footage, which went viral in July 2018, showed a group of soldiers leading away the women and children, who they accused of being part of Boko Haram, before blindfolding them and shooting them dead.

The footage appeared to have been filmed in northern Cameroon, but the country’s government dismissed the video as fake news and denied that the soldiers taking part were Cameroonian.

However the team, working as part of the BBC’s Africa Eye and with a group of amateur investigators on Twitter, used clues from the footage together with open source data and software to determine where and when the killings took place as well as the identity of the killers.

The team used satellite imagery and tip-offs to help pinpoint the location, clues such as the angle of the soldiers’ shadows and the presence of seasonal paths to determine the time of year, and details of weaponry and army uniforms to confirm that the killers were indeed Cameroonian soldiers. They also used Facebook profiles along with nicknames heard in the video and information from a military source to identify the soldiers involved.

The investigation itself, named Anatomy of a Killing, went viral on Twitter and was picked up by multiple news outlets. While the investigation was taking place, the Cameroonian government announced that seven soldiers had been arrested, of whom three appear to be those identified by the team.

According to RTS, the judges described the report as ‘a superb piece of public interest journalism which held power to account and had a huge impact in social media’. The awards were announced on 27 February.

Emmanuel Freudenthal is a freelance investigative journalist based in Nairobi. He completed the MPhil in Development Studies at ODID between 2007 and 2009.

Source: Oxford Department of International Development

2, March 2019

APNC and Dr Sako’s IG: Ambazonia sources of glory and shame ⁰

The so-called APNC conference has come and gone and from every indication the meeting failed in contributing anything to the Southern Cameroons restoration struggle. 28 anti Interim Government personalities took part in the conference including some hired photographers. It was forbidden to show any picture of the super crowd and super delegates the organizers had claimed would filled the hall.

The scantily attended Southern Cameroons forum aired out a group photo but no images of the audience have ever since been made public. This was indeed a Southern Cameroons conference of glory and shame. Glory because Ambazonians now have a group of people who are challenging the interim government rocked by numerous financial scandals. And shame because it was an ill-disguised attempt at toppling the Southern Cameroons Interim Government.

Southern Cameroonians all over the world were waiting for the APNC to give their Interim Government a vote of no confidence, but it is now abundantly clear that those who travelled to the USA for the said conference gave themselves a red card.

Through the organizers of APNC, the dust has now settled and the world can see clearly that the Southern Cameroons Interim Government is the people’s government-though acting now like a train with no brakes.

Acting President Sako’s recent action of freezing all Interim Government bank accounts has instead helped the organizers of the APNC conference who should have gone home with nothing!!! The language coming from members of the Interim Government has been consistently inconsistent with some rejoicing and calling on the APNC men and women to humble themselves and make recommendations to the IG. This is just a repeat of CPDM politics in Southern Cameroons. Correspondingly, the Interim Government can also be painted as Ambazonia’s source of glory and shame.

The finances of the Ambazonian Interim Government is now organised around one man-Acting President Ikome Sako. That is dangerous, shameful, disgusting and disgraceful. By going that direction, Acting President Sako seeks to remake the Ambazonia Interim Government in CPDM image. President Paul Biya of French Cameroun has been more successful in this regard.

From the start, thousands of Ambazonians including the Cameroon Concord News Group were mesmerised with Sako’s coming as head of the Interim Government and we embraced him more fervently than SCOOP. However, as our briefing explains, Sako has taken ownership of the Interim Government. It is an extraordinary achievement from a man who had never earned a thousand dollars since moving to the US, who never held public office, who boasted of being a pastor and who, as recently, was sacked from a security job.

The organising principle of Mr Sako’s Interim Government is loyalty. Not, as with the best Southern Cameroons leaders such as Fon Gorgi Dinka, Justice Ebong, Chief Ayamba and Sisiku Ayuk Tabe who had loyalty to the restoration vision or the rule of law and order, but to just one man—Samuel Ikome Sako. In the Federal Republic of Ambazonia that is unprecedented and it is dangerous.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

2, March 2019

Understanding Acting President Sako’s financial message ⁰

We are a people who respect authority when authority earns respect. We also confront authority when authority crosses the acceptable boundaries in projecting excesses and disregard of honest engagements. I watched Acting President Sako today as he delivered his message to the nation and felt like I was watching one of those devilish conmen of the genocidal vampire terrorist Paul Biya government. It was hard to take. Tears came to my eyes that at this moment of the history of our long struggle when our people are being slaughtered every second and suffering indignities we would have a leader who will find the needs to be taking us for fools.

Let me explain: a member of Sako’s cabinet came out to tell the world that another member of the same cabinet has not been accountable with the funds of the government. Immediately after that Sako came out siding with the member who made the allegations by ordering an audit. While that audit was ongoing, the member who made the allegations came out again attacking the other. Sako remained quiet. Then a partial audit sent to his office was deliberately leaked to public to set the stage for him to come out with a pretentious gesture of taking full responsibility and issuing an executive order, which in a way is empowering one member of his cabinet and sanctioning another. No Dr Sako you are very wrong. You cannot take such measures if you are genuine and honest about the audit. Unless your audit is just for window dressing and is not independent. Your executive order already taints the validity and accuracy of the so-called audit. That executive order can only come as part of the recommendations from the audit, not you doing it in mid-audit.

Maybe you miss what the audit should be about. The treasurer whom your executive order is empowering to open new accounts must also submit to the audit. The office of the presidency that has been receiving funds as we have seen in the partial leaked audit, must also account for all the funds it received. All the departments of your cabinet that received funds must also account for those funds. You seem to be thinking that this audit is for Brado Tabenyang alone. You are wrong. It is for your whole cabinet and your cannot issue executive orders to open new accounts when there is an ongoing audit.

You mentioned the restoration council as if it is a department of your cabinet. From all indications you have functioned in total disregard and disrespect of that body. Since you seem to be influencing this audit process and putting its independence in doubt, without taking any instructions from you, the restoration council should and must order its own independent audit of all the funds that have come in since you came to office and how it was spent to the last penny. Stop directing and interfering with the audit process. You are not dealing here with fools.

And please stop sending out people to attack fellow Ambazonians who disagree with you. You do not own the IG we do and we will not allow these games on the blood and sufferings of our people.

Christmas Ebini

1, March 2019

Cameroon soldiers ‘invade’ Catholic hospital in search for separatists ⁰

Cameroonian soldiers ‘invaded’ a medical facility as they hunted Anglophone separatists in the country’s troubled northwest region.

The attack took place on Feb. 17, in the Diocese of Kumbo, which has been plagued by the fighting between the army and rebels.

The Shisong Cardiac Center at St. Elizabeth Catholic General hospital is the only facility where heart diseases are treated in Central Africa. The soldiers stormed the building searching for separatist fighters.

“It is giving us a very bad name,” said Bishop George Nkuo.

“The army can come in to the hospital where there are cardiac patients and move around in search of whomever. It is not done; but that was done. And they shoot around even with people who are cardiac patients. That is the most irresponsible act to do. Most unprofessional I would say at the least,” he told Crux.

A local Catholic radio station in the area, Radio Evangelum gave details on how the military assault was conducted.

“About 11 a.m. that Sunday, defense forces of Cameroon got into the premises of Saint Elizabeth Catholic General Hospital and Cardiac Centre, Shisong. It is alleged that they were in search of wounded separatist fighters who might have been admitted in the hospital,” the station reported.

“Five military men, carrying arms, entered the hospital through the gate leading into the Farewell Home. They moved into the Cardiac Centre section of the hospital next to the Farewell Home. The soldiers, reports say, went into the wards in that section, and took out a boy who was taking care of his grandmother admitted in the hospital. They proceeded to the inner sections of the hospital, went to the Surgical Unit, and moved into one of the wards. The soldiers are said to have fired some gunshots inside the hospital premises,” the report continued.

The station said the Tertiary Sisters of Saint Francis who run the hospital were on a day of recollection that Sunday, but some of the sisters immediately came to the hospital where they met the soldiers.

The nuns told the soldiers to stop their disruptive actions and to leave. The soldiers complied, and released one young man they had detained.

“The likelihood of trauma on patients and health workers is high. The effect of the incident on patients in the Cardiac Center section could be disastrous and long lasting. The administration of the hospital was uncomfortable with the incident,” said Sister Mary Aldrine Kinyuy, the director of the hospital.

The incident happened just a day after separatists kidnapped over 100 students from a Catholic school in the diocese. They were released the next day.

Nkuo said Kumbo has recently become a theater for conflict, with people being killed, homes burnt and property destroyed.

About 80 percent of Cameroon is French-speaking. However, the Northwest and Southwest regions of Cameroon are majority English-speaking, a legacy of the colonial history of the country: Cameroon was originally German, but after World War I the defeated country transferred it to the Allies, and it was divided between France and Britain.

At independence, the two parts were reunited, and currently about 20 percent of the country’s nearly 25 million people is anglophone. The Catholic Church is the largest religious group in the country, representing about 40 percent of all Cameroonians.

In October 2016, strikes by lawyers and teachers over perceived attempts by the Francophone administration to assimilate the legal and educational systems practiced in the two English-speaking regions turned violent, and morphed into rising demands by Anglophone Cameroonians for independence.

The government has been accused of razing entire villages and extrajudicial killings in their hunt for separatists, who are calling on the English-speaking areas to form a new country, called ‘Ambazonia.’

Separatists have also been accused of atrocities, and have attacked Cameroonian security forces, and kidnapped opponents for ransom.

“There is shooting and random killing,” the bishop said. He said much of the killing is carried out by government soldiers, whom he accuses of acting unprofessionally.

“I have seen houses burnt and I am even told that there are a number of people being killed… And the people who have been killed are innocent people, innocent civilians. I am very sad indeed,” Nkuo said.

“I can tell you that people are living in great fear. I have had the chance to go round the diocese, to go on pastoral visits, in fact today (Feb. 17), I was in one of the parishes and three-quarters of the people have left. They are not there. They have left. I can even say that some of them have threatened they would never come back,“ the bishop added.

The bishop admitted that he himself wasn’t safe, but he can’t abandon those “who have no way else to go.”

“The bishop cannot leave them. I am there with them because somebody must be there to reassure them that there is hope, that there is a future and that God is in control. That is why I am still in Kumbo,” he said.

Recently, a picture of the bishop went viral after it showed him carrying a box on his head while visiting a remote village in November.

“I don’t know why it went viral. I am sorry about that,” he said, before noting that he was just doing what he ought to do as a pastor in the circumstance.

“If I have to go and meet the people and the road is blocked, what should I do? Should I stay back? No! This is what the missionary does and this is what we should do. We must go to meet the people even when we meet obstacles, we must be humble enough, we must show a sense of mission that we can overcome the obstacles and go to where the people are,” Nkuo said.

He acknowledged the fact that he has not been able to reach all his parishes, but insisted that wherever possible, he would go.

“God, the Church expects us to do that and we do it joyfully and happily because we know that the people of God need us and we must go there and attend to them,“ the bishop explained.

Source: Crux

1, March 2019

Southern Cameroons Crisis: There’s hope on the horizon ⁰

After more than two years of violent confrontations in Cameroon, the world is gradually taking note of the ferocious brutality that is playing out in the country. The Southern Cameroons crisis that has been unfolding for two years spiraled out of control in 2018 as many armed groups in the two English-speaking regions of the country threw their hats into the ring.

During this period, some 5,000 Cameroonians – both civilians and soldiers – have met their death as the government pursues its policy of collective punishment. Many civilians have seen their homes burnt down by government forces which have opted for a “scorch-earth” policy that is hurting many vulnerable people who have nothing to do with the conflict.

For some time now, there has been some silent diplomacy behind the scenes and Americans have been working hard to ensure the Biya regime caves in. The US embassy in Cameroon needs to be credited for all the diplomatic efforts it has made to ensure that government forces do not kill innocent civilians with impunity. The US administration has been urging the government to comply with the Geneva Convention. It even reduced its military aid to Cameroon as a first and serious step toward demonstrating that it will not tolerate impunity and human rights violations.

With the Biya regime still insisting that state authority must be respected and that Southern Cameroonians must be made to regret their decision to kill some 2,000 troops, the country’s military has continued to unleash the full spectrum of its anger on a population it accuses of supporting the separatists.

This ferocious violence has caught the attention of many and this time around, the Swiss have also decided to play a key role in efforts aimed at restoring peace in Cameroon. The Southern Cameroons crisis which started in October 2016 has finally caught the attention of the world and some steps are being taken to alleviate the pain and suffering of the people of Southern Cameroons. Many around the world are hoping that his visit will lead to a ceasefire that will enable the United Nations (UN) to deploy its staff in the troubled regions.

It should also be underscored that in January 2018, a Swiss delegation, led by Nicoletta Mariolini, was in Cameroon where it had a long discussion with members of the Musonge bilingualism commission on the possibilities of cooperation with a view to enhancing national unity and peaceful co-existence between the various linguistic groups of the country.

The President of Switzerland, Ueli Maurer, has joined the ongoing efforts to end the brutality. He is expected to be in Cameroon in the coming days where he will be meeting Cameroon’s President, Paul Biya, where their discussions will focus on ways and means of putting an end to the brutality.

For two years, Southern Cameroonians have been longing for the UN to come in and save lives, but the global body which does not have a standing army was caught up in a cobweb of negotiations with the Yaounde government that is wary of the global body.

Despite pressure from powerful nations like the United States and Canada, the Yaounde government has continued to play ball with the UN and this has resulted in many people losing their lives. Things have been complicated by the fact that the UN lacks the resources to carry out a peacekeeping mission in many parts of the world.

Currently, the UN needs USD 15.2 million but has only succeeded to mobilize USD 5.1 which has enabled it to send some international staff to Buea and Bamenda and there is a huge recruitment campaign going on in those two cities. The various UN humanitarian bodies need local staff to help them deliver humanitarian assistance to those who need it the most.

In a report published in January 2019 on the situation in Cameroon, the UN highlighted the need for a prompt and urgent response to ensure things do not further deteriorate.

“Insecurity in the affected regions remains high, with continuing armed attacks and confrontations between the military and armed groups. The crisis further worsened from mid-2018 onward due to increased hostilities ahead of the presidential election. Movements continue to be restricted in the two regions due to a curfew in the North-West, a “No Movement” declaration by non-state actors and the increase of both official and informal checkpoints,” the report says

“In the South West, on 3 January CDC workers of the Rubber Plantation in Tiko, Fako Division while at work were attacked by Non-state armed men (NSAG). They were tortured, and their toes and fingers cut off for working in the Plantation against the policy of armed groups. In January, troops clashed with armed groups across the two regions with ensuing fatalities and destroyed properties and vehicles. Military operations increased in both regions to counter armed group plans for February ‘lockdown’. Preventive displacement and stockpiling was ongoing at the time of writing of this report. Declining security situation during the month is expected,” the report says.

“Hostilities have continued to claim civilian lives, from indirect fire and from disturbing reports of targeted killings. Urban attacks have resulted in deaths from cross-fire and civilian casualties have been reported as a result of raids on villages. In late January, large scale military operations were launched in the Bafut area resulting in numerous casualties for both combatants and civilians. On 25 January, the military killed 11 people they suspected of being armed separatists in Mpundu-Balong in the Southwest region. Incidents were also reported taking place in Marumba and Tiko amongst others. Abductions continue to be an ongoing concern,” the report reveals.

“The violence has uprooted 437,500 people from their homes and forced over 32,000 to seek refuge in neighbouring Nigeria. Humanitarian organizations are striving to scale-up their presence in the conflict-hit regions. Shelters, NFI and Education have been identified in the North-West and South-West regions as the most urgent needs. Almost 50 per cent of the displaced have settled in rural areas and have an increased need for shelter and non-food items. More than 80% of girls and boys no longer have access to schooling on a continuous basis because of the crisis,” the report says.

“The outlook for 2019 is one of emergency response as displacement continues due to the ongoing conflict. Vulnerability is compounded as services deteriorate and resilience is eroded. Access remains challenging as poor levels of understanding of humanitarian action persist and infrastructure is damaged in armed conflict related operations to deny mobility to opposing forces. Armed fighting and insecurity continue to be the principal impediment to the provision of assistance as well as a barrier to those in need in terms of reaching areas where they can receive aid,” the report points out.

The majority of those displaced are women and children. Protection is the principal humanitarian concern as the ongoing conflict is the main cause of human suffering. Food and shelter are also of concern as displacement continues. Needs across all sectors are high and are being further compounded as the conflict deepens.

Of particular concern is access to water for areas requiring water transportation during days when movement is limited. Many of the conflict-affected populations are growing more vulnerable as the violence persists and humanitarian assistance remains inadequate, the report stresses.

“The deployment of humanitarian actors to the field continues. A further allocation of CERF to Cameroon will in part support humanitarian activities in the North-West and South-West regions. As of 7 January, donors had provided 35 per cent of the US$15.2 million required as per the emergency response plan, according to the Financial Tracking Service (FTS). This amount constitutes the US$5.1 million CERF allocation under the rapid response window. Additional contributions were received by other donors but not yet reported on FTS,” the report says.

For almost three years after the conflict started, the international community has been calling for inclusive dialogue, but its passivity and lack of interest in the whole situation have led many Southern Cameroonians to accuse it of connivance with the Biya region to decimate the indigenous people of Southern Cameroons. The international community is now coming out of the “Omerta” it imposed on itself. This will surely enable Southern Cameroonians to stop seeing it as an accomplice in the genocide that is currently playing out in their country.

Now that the government is listening, it is time for the international community to get tough on a government that is considered by its own citizens as a crime syndicate. Its corruption has robbed its own people of happiness and prosperity. Today, it is fiercely promoting the principle of political tribalism as a means of sustaining itself in power. The market-dominant minority that has enriched itself through unorthodox means has brought untold hardship to Cameroonians. It has to go and Cameroonians in general hold that the intervention of the international community will be a welcome relief. Turning a blind eye to the problem will not make it go away. The international community must step in to restore peace in a country that is anything, but democratic.

By Kingsley Betek in Yaounde and Irene Nanyongo in North America

1, March 2019

International agro-pastoral summit kicks off in Yaounde ⁰

A four-day international agro-pastoral summit organized by the Cameroonian government in partnership with the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) opened in the capital, Yaounde, on Thursday.

The opening ceremony was attended by local and foreign government officials and agricultural investors.

“We need to trust the land, to trust agriculture. And importantly, employment is now possible with agriculture,” Cameroon’s Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Gabriel Mbairobe who chaired the opening ceremony told reporters.

According to the ministry of agriculture, 500 participants from 35 countries are attending the summit which runs from Thursday to Sunday.

“We expect this summit to be a game changer especially for young people in Africa. Africa can lead the world in agriculture if we have the needed support from our governments,” Rose Bole, a 35-year-old participant from Nigeria observed.

“We hope to share experiences and create a veritable synergy for the promotion of agriculture the world over during this summit,” Emmanuel Kofi, a participant from Ghana said.

Cameroon hopes to tap into its agriculture potential in a bid to attract investors during the summit, Mbairobe said.

Xinhuanet

1, March 2019

Kidnapping A Daily Nightmare in Southern Cameroons ⁰

Journalist Macmillan Ambe Awa was covering the unrest in western Cameroon when he became part of the story.

He was kidnapped by armed men and held for 24 terrifying hours before being released, physically unhurt but shaken.

“They accused me of making programmes that say children should go back to school,” Ambe Awa told AFP by telephone, referring to an educational boycott by the region’s anglophone separatist movement.

Traumatic as the ordeal was, such experiences are almost routine in Cameroon’s English-speaking Northwest and Southwest regions.

Insurgents have staged hundreds of kidnappings, both for ransom and as a political message — alongside ambushes targeting soldiers and police, and arson attacks on buildings symbolising the central government, including schools and hospitals.

Their armed uprising began in October 2017 following years of simmering anger at perceived discrimination by the country’s French-speaking majority.

Since then, at least 500 civilians and more than 200 members of the security forces have died in clashes, attacks and a government crackdown, the International Crisis Group (ICG) says.

‘Scared to go out’

Many residents of Buea, capital of Cameroon’s Southwest region, say they are in despair over the ongoing violence. By MARCO LONGARI (AFP/File)

Earlier this month, almost 170 pupils were abducted from Kumbo in the Northwest and freed after a day in captivity. The kidnappers demanded the closure of the high school, which has not opened its doors since.

And in November, another 90 students were kidnapped and held for five days, again on grounds that their school be closed.

“It’s shameful that the separatists should have adopted this strategy,” said a resident of Buea, capital of the Southwest region.

The separatists justify their boycott on grounds that the French system discriminates against anglophone pupils.

Witnesses said the army raided searched dozens of homes in and around Kumbo after the latest mass kidnapping, with soldiers torching several of them in retaliation.

The ministry of communication denied such reports when they appeared in the press, but it was not the first time the security forces had come under fire for such actions in anglophone areas.

‘Opportunistic’ kidnappings

The violence and abductions have created a real climate of fear.

Earlier this month, Buea hosted the annual “Race of Hope” to the summit of Mount Cameroon, an active volcano which rises 4,040 metres (13,250 feet) and is the highest peak in the country.

But this time, Sports Minister Narcisse Mouelle Kombi turned up in a bullet-proof vest and a helmet, and dozens of armed men were deployed at Buea stadium.

Map of Cameroon locating English-speaking regions and their capitals, Bamenda and Buea.. By Valentina BRESCHI (AFP)

In both regions, the insecurity caused by frequent clashes between troops and the separatists has also led to a steady increase in activity by criminal gangs.

And such gangs have realised that kidnapping is lucrative.

“About a third of abductions are the work of opportunistic armed bandits,” said Hans de Marie Heungoup, a Cameroon researcher for the ICG.

And efforts to differentiate between separatist attacks and those motivated by criminal interests has become ever harder due to the splintering of separatist groups.

But in the eyes of Yaounde, there is no difference. Agitators are all “terrorists”.

Burden of history

Divisions between the anglophone regions and Cameroon’s authorities date back a century to when Britain and France occupied Cameroon, taking over Germany’s principal colony in West Africa.

France was given the greater part of the territory, which became independent in 1960.

A year later, the British colony also gained independence, with some of the English-speaking areas choosing to join newly-formed Nigeria, while others opted to become part of the federation of Cameroon.

In the following decades, Cameroon’s anglophone minority routinely complained about unequal treatment in areas like education, the law and the economy.

Hundreds of thousands of people have fled their homes in Northwest and Southwest regions — more than 30,000 have sought shelter in neighbouring Nigeria. By PIUS UTOMI EKPEI (AFP)

But demands for greater autonomy were repeatedly rebuffed by President Paul Biya, and eventually the campaign became radicalised.

On October 1 2017, an anglophone group symbolically declared the independence of the “Republic of Ambazonia” in the two regions, triggering a crackdown that saw the separatists responding with violence.

Since then, at least 437,000 people have fled their homes, according to UN estimates, with another 32,000 fleeing across the border to Nigeria.

“We’re trapped,” a Buea resident said.

“We’re scared to go out, we’re scared to take the bus,” he told AFP.

“For a long time, I thought things would calm down so we stayed, but I’ve started to call the family in Douala to tell them we’ll be coming,” he said of Cameroon’s economic capital, which lies on the coast.

“There’s nothing more for us here.”

Source: Ghana News

1, March 2019

U.N. says 10,000 Nigerians return from Cameroon to town targeted by Boko Haram ⁰

At least 10,000 Nigerians displaced from the town of Rann by repeated attacks over the past few months returned on Wednesday, the United Nations said, and hundreds more were still on their way from where they had fled to in neighbouring Cameroon.

The returnees were among 40,386 civilians who had fled four attacks on Rann since December, and hundreds more were reportedly still on the road, making their way on foot back to the town, a U.N. humanitarian report said.