The last few weeks and days have put Southern Cameroons in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons.

Human life appears to be worthless to both separatist fighters and government troops which have been running amok in the region and in the process, leaving a trail of death and destruction.

Over the last week, several people have been beheaded and many others kidnapped in the two English-speaking regions of the country, causing the international community to call out separatist fighters who are giving well-intentioned rebellion a very bad name.

Government troops are also putting themselves in the firing line by committing atrocities that have made them the people’s enemies instead of allies as criminal elements, some sponsored by the country’s territorial administration minister, Paul Atanga Nji,  make hay of the ongoing fighting in the two regions to enrich themselves and stifle a rebellion that started some four years ago when the country’s English-speaking minority accused the Yaoundé government of decades of injustice and marginalization.

The flaring violence is mostly targeting innocent civilians, most of whom are young girls who simply want to live a normal life.

A few days ago, a young girl was killed in the country’s northwest region shortly after a video of her dancing in a drinking spot with some young boys. She was accused of dating government soldiers and betraying the revolution.

Two days ago, a young beautiful lady was slaughtered by supposedly separatist fighters in the town of Muyuka in the country’s southwest region.

The gruesome pictures have triggered a wave of condemnation across the globe, with the US embassy in Yaoundé and an American law-maker calling for the suspects to be brought to justice and a speedy search for a resolution to the issues that triggered the fighting.

The country’s military has been dispatched to Muyuka to protect the population, but in less than a day, it has killed seven civilians, prompting many people to question if the army is better than the lawless criminals and separatist fighters who have been intimidating the local population.

The country’s law enforcement community has hastily presented some three young men as the killers of the young lady in Muyuka, causing many people to openly call out the country’s  police which is the most corrupt and most inefficient on the continent.

If the culprits have been arrested, why has the military been killing innocent civilians in Muyuka even after the arrests?

How could an inefficient police force just arrest the killers of the young lady in less than a day when the entire world knows that separatist fighters live in the jungles and not in town?

The corrupt police is also known for its brutality and many Cameroonians hold that those arrested will be compelled to confess just to give the corrupt Yaoundé regime a good name around the world.

 The senseless killings speak to the breakdown of law and order in the English-speaking regions and the inability of the government to engineer peace.

The slaughtering in the two English-speaking regions which affects mostly women and children has been on the rise ever since the country’s ailing and senile President, Paul Biya, declared war on the people of Southern Cameroons.

Most of the civilian casualties that have recently occurred in Fako and Mezam Divisions are attributed to armed Southern Cameroonian groups and Yaoundé-sponsored militia battling Ambazonian Restoration Forces.

Towns such as Ekok, Muyuka, Wum, Bamenda, Ndop and Kumbo have witnessed the worst forms of brutality and the killings are now spreading to other towns in Manyu and Kupe Muanenguba Divisions, while Batibo and Widikum in the northwest regions have become open air abattoirs.

Cameroon Concord News Group recorded 62 deaths throughout Southern Cameroons in the month of July and 59 were innocent civilians.

When Cameroon government forces used machine guns in populated areas in Jakiri and Batibo, 99% of those killed were civilians and not people involved in the fighting.

The international community has to step up its pressure on the corrupt Yaoundé government and the separatists if the violence and senseless killings have to come to an end.

The solutions to the country’s problems could be found at the negotiating table, but both parties have been reluctant to heed calls for peace talks.

The Yaoundé government has, in particular, been dragging its feet, hoping that time will address its problems; an approach that has not delivered any positive results over the last four years.

The world should not continue to turn a blind eye to these atrocities committed by both parties. The Yaoundé government must be pressured into embracing talks and it must acknowledge that time for change has come.

There is no way things will continue as usual. The country’s economy is on its knees and the military is very unlikely to score a clear victory over Southern Cameroonian fighters who are more determined to elbow the Yaoundé government out of the region.

After four years of senseless fighting, tricks and killings, it is time for both parties to work towards ending the streams of blood that have been flowing in Southern Cameroons.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

A large blast in Yaoundé precisely at the Mokolo district has injured scores of people.

Videos show the destruction in a drinking spot in Marché Mokolo following the blast.

Officials are blaming Southern Cameroons Self Defense Forces fighting for the independence of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia.

An investigation is under way to find the exact trigger for the explosion. A spokesperson for the Delegate General for National Security has been quoted as saying that those responsible would face the maximum punishment.

A Cameroon Concord News journalist at the scene reported severe damage, enough to put the Biya Francophone regime on the alert.

By Rita Akana

The residence of the Manager of the Industrial Unit of the Cameroon Development Corporation, CDC, in Penda Mboko was raided by gunmen on Thursday August 13, 2020 in an attack blamed on Ambazonia Restoration Forces by the Biya Francophone regime in Yaoundé.

Yaoundé hinted that suspected separatist fighters crossed from Muyuka in the Southern Zone of Ambazonia into the Mungo Division in French Cameroun and staged the attack.

Ali Malex, CDC Penda Mboko Industrial Manager is said to have been taken away to an unknown destination by the armed men.

Eyewitnesses say the gunmen successfully disarmed his guard, shot and killed his son who is currently writing the GCE Ordinary Level Exams and burnt down the official residence of the CDC Penda Mboko Industrial Manager including cars.

Cameroon Info.Net reported that “They stormed the Industrial Unit Manager’s house, burnt all the cars and set the whole house ablaze. As if that was not enough, the armed boys shot and killed a form five student who lives within the manager’s yard and finally kidnapped the Industrial Unit Manager”

Cameroon government soldiers arrived late after the unidentified gunmen had completed their operation.

The office of the Southern Cameroons Vice President Dabney Yerima is yet to comment on the incident. On October 29, 2018, unidentified gunmen attacked Government Bilingual High School Penda Mboko. Students and teachers were forced to flee before the armed men set the campus on fire.

Penda Mboko is situated in the Mungo Division of the Littoral Region and borders the Southern Zone of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia where Ambazonia Restoration Forces have been battling Cameroon government security forces.

Back in 2018, unidentified armed men attacked the gendarmerie brigade in Penda Mboko setting it ablaze before taking off.

The area is currently under high security alert as internally displaced persons troop in from Muyuka after alleged Atanga Nji Boys passing for Ambazonia Restoration Forces slaughtered a 35-year-old lady on Tuesday.

By Fon Lawrence with additional reporting from Cameroon Info.Net

In Cameroon, there has been widespread condemnation of recent barbaric violence against civilians in the country’s troubled western regions.  In the past week, suspected separatists killed 13 civilians, including aid workers, with videos of beheaded women shared on social media.  

In video circulated on social media in Cameroon, several men dressed in black order a young woman to lie down and then appear to behead her with a machete.  

The killers describe the woman as a traitor, an indication that they are Anglophone separatists.   

Cameroon authorities confirmed that a woman was beheaded on Tuesday in the southwestern town of Muyuka.  It was the thirteenth such slaying in the last week in Cameroon’s restive English-speaking regions.   

Last Friday, another woman was beheaded on video in the northwestern town of Bamenda. Her killers, seen in the video on social media, claim she was seen with a Cameroon military officer sent to fight the rebels.  

Christopher Bela, of the Bamenda-based Cameroon Rights Group, says such barbaric killings are becoming more common in the separatist conflict.  

“The people of the Northwest and Southwest have been hoping that someone will come in and solve the Anglophone problem [separatist crisis].  They are tired and they would like to have peace.  Everyone wants peace.  We are hoping that these killings left and right come to an end so that Cameroonians have peace,” he said.

In Bamenda this week two teachers were also killed — one was shot and the other stabbed to death.  

The rebels, who want independence from Cameroon’s French-speaking majority, see teachers as targets for pushing Francophone dominance on the English-speaking regions.   

Cameroon authorities say the rebels are also targeting aid workers and have killed three in the past week.   

On August 7, Tanjoh Christopher, a pastor and aid worker with Community Initiative for Sustainable Development, was killed in the northwestern town of Batibo.  Country director for the foreign aid group Plan International Cameroon, Miriam Castaneda, condemned the attacks.    

“We ascribe to the humanitarian principles of neutrality, impartiality and independence.  So, it is sad and painful that these things happen, however, we need to continue to promote the humanitarian principles,” she said.  “The only thing that we can do is to continue to be optimistic that the situation will improve and continue to work with the people that need us so much.” 

Governor of the English-speaking Northwest region Deben Tchoffo says the rebels are attacking soft targets because they are getting weaker. 

“Those who are trying to disrupt public order in the Northwest Region are going to face the might of our security forces [military],” said Tchoffo. 

Separatists’ spokesperson Capo Daniel admits that some fighters have attacked civilians.  But he claims most of the attacks are by government-created armed groups to give the rebels a bad image.  

“In Bambili [town] where a human rights worker was arrested [abducted], we actually dismissed the soldier [fighter] and we made it public.  But the population has to also understand that there are traitors who have received money from the Cameroon military to carry out atrocities,” said Daniel, speaking in a message shared on social media. 

Cameroon’s military has strongly denied any involvement in targeting civilians and aid workers.   

The United States Embassy in Yaounde on Tuesday condemned the killing of aid workers and called for investigations to find and punish the guilty. 

The United Nations says Cameroon’s four-year separatist conflict has left over 3,000 people dead and half a million displaced.

Source: VOA 

The over 36,000 Cameroonian refugees in Cross River have opposed purported plans by their home government to relocate them to the Francophone nation’s beleaguered South West region that is seeking independence.

They have also rejected the planned visit of the region’s governor to the South South state in that respect, insisting that the move was a breach of international law.

Consequently, the refugees led by Simon Fuh Ngwa (ID Card No. 720-00004985) and Arrey Arrey Samuel (ID Card No. 720-00009049) in a letter entitled ‘The Coordination of Cameroonian Refugees in Calabar and Environs’ dated August 11, 2020 and addressed to the Commissioner of Police, sighted yesterday in Calabar, read: “We have the honour to come before your high office to apply for an authorisation to stage a peaceful protest in Calabar and other refugee settlements within Cross River State of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. This peaceful march is to protest against a planned visit of a delegation of Cameroun government officials to be led by the Governor of South West region of Cameroun, Bernard Okalia Bilai, to Camerounian refugees in Nigeria.”

They claimed that in a meeting with Ayade, on Friday, August 7, 2020, “the Cameroonian Consul General in Calabar lied to Governor Ben Ayade that peace has returned to the warring territory in Cameroun and that reconstruction work for the rehabilitation of the refugees had commenced. On the contrary, the ruthless soldiers of French Cameroon have intensified the genocide and burning down of whole villages in a bid to demoralise the population from upholding their resolve for their right to self-determination as enshrined in the United Nations Trusteeship Agreement.”

The petitioners added that the purpose of the peaceful march was to alert the Nigerian authorities and the international community that they were comfortable and very much at home in Nigeria, and would have nothing to do with French Cameroun. “More so, any visit to us will be in violation of international law and the UN Geneva Convention of 1951 on the rights and duties of refugees.”

Also speaking on the development, a rights activist, Odey Oyama, in a memorandum to the state governor dated August 12, 2020, condemned the proposed trip, stating: “It appears to contain some elements of breach of diplomatic protocol. In my view, such a visit ought to be planned and organised between the Embassy of the Republic of Cameroon in Abuja and the Nigerian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Abuja.”

He, therefore, advised Governor Ayade to seek diplomatic guidance on the matter.

Culled from The Guardian