Cameroonians are complaining of increasing human rights abuses as the central African state intensifies raids on English-speaking rebel camps.  The military says within the past week, at least 23 separatist rebels and three soldiers have been killed, but local people say most of those killed were unarmed civilians. The military is denying the accusations. There are growing calls for investigations of alleged human rights abuses by troops.

General Valere Nka, commander of the Cameroonian troops fighting separatists in the English-speaking North-West region, said within the past seven days, 400 troops have attacked at least 15 separatist camps. Nka said in Bui, an English-speaking administrative unit in the North-West region, more than 15 rebels were killed, and hundreds of weapons seized.

He said he has instructed the military to remain professional and respect human rights as they destroy all separatist camps and kill rebel fighters who refuse to drop their weapons. He said people should cooperate with troops risking their lives to protect civilians. He said peace must return to Cameroon’s English-speaking regions.

Nka said two soldiers were killed and another died after a roadside bomb damaged a military vehicle in the town of Kumbo. The general said a self-proclaimed separatist general called Assan died during the raids while 11 rebel fighters were arrested.

The government said another self-proclaimed general called Elangue Godwin surrendered to troops fighting rebels in the South-Western town of Kumba.

Separatists have acknowledged the attacks and the killing of their general on social media. They also acknowledged that one of their fighters surrendered but said only three fighters died. The separatists said they killed nine troops in Kumba.

Thirty-two-year-old honey seller Ernest Kebam fled from Oku, a district in the North-West region on March 3. He said he does not trust the military claims that troops respect human rights. He said his uncle, also a honey seller, was among several civilians who were tortured and killed in Oku. He said people he saw in military outfits tortured civilians and looted homes. He spoke via a messaging app from Douala.

“They [the government] should carry out investigations because the same scenario happened in Ngarr-buh last year and then they [the military] said it was the separatists and at the end, after investigations it was the military. Up north, was the same scenario. They [the military] said it was not the military that it was Boko Haram that attacked [civilians] and after investigations it was the military, so let them carry out investigations,” said Kebam.

Joseph Vincent Ntuda Ebode is a lecturer in international security and defense at the University of Yaoundé-Soa. He said Cameroon, as a signatory to all human rights conventions, should conduct an independent investigation of claims of abuses by its troops. He said people want to be sure that their rights are not abused by the military that claims to be defending civilians.

He said only true investigations will assure civilians, the military and the international community that troops committed or did not commit intolerable human rights abuses the military is accused of. He said investigations will also determine if the military committed atrocities because of the inhumane treatment separatist fighters inflict on the troops.

This is not the first time Cameroonian soldiers have been accused of human rights abuses.

Last week, Cameroon described as grossly exaggerated a Human Rights Watch report that its military raped 20 women, including four with disabilities, and arbitrarily arrested and beat men, but the abuses went unreported for a year. HRW said the victims did not report the abuses for fear of reprisal from the military. Cameroon said the report lacks credibility. Officials acknowledged that 35 men were arrested in the English-speaking southern village of Ebam, but denied there were abuses.

Separatist have been fighting since 2017 to form an English-speaking state within the majority French-speaking country.

Rights groups accuse both the military and rebels of atrocities during the conflict in the English-speaking western regions, which the U.N. says has left over 3,000 people dead and more than half a million displaced.

Source: VOA

Last Saturday, 6 March 2021, interview of Ambazonia’s Vice President, Dabney Yerima, on South Africa’s major TV broadcaster, SABC News, was a breakthrough for the pro-independence movement in the Southern Cameroons in their quest to get their plight covered by the international media. The 7pm primetime interview by Ms Francis Herd was intense but fair and is expected to open diplomatic and humanitarian doors after an exposure to a viewership of over 30 million in the South African sub-region.

During the 13 minutes interview, Dabney Yerima was asked to clarify why the pro-independence movement calls their newly created country Ambazonia when the state does not exist in the international community of nations. The exiled Ambazonian leader invoked the theory of self-determination and insisted that the people of Southern Cameroons have never been a part of French Cameroun and is within their rights under international norms to seek sovereignty.

Pressed on the issue of multiple factions in the Ambazonia struggle, the Ambazonia Vice President asserted that there is only one group leading the people of Ambazonia to freedom with President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe, who is now serving a French Cameroun concocted life sentence in Yaoundé, as the leader.

Ms Francis Herd used her killer punches and pushed the Southern Cameroons Vice President to explain if the conflict has any meaningful justification. Yerima was unequivocal in affirming that the Southern Cameroons war of independence has been bloody but worthy. He showered praises on the members of the British parliament who recently called on the UK government to intervene in finding a solution to the crisis.  

As millions of children in the war-torn country have not been to school for over four years, Mr Yerima was questioned to explain the Ambazonia Interim Government’s policy on school attendance. He opined that “we have left the decision to send children to school with parents. We recognise that these are some of the sacrifices that the people of Ambazonia will have to make to attain the independence. We are also looking at opening community schools in areas that are safe for us to do so”

The Ambazonian Vice President expressed the Southern Cameroons Interim Government’s gratitude to the US Senate for passing US Senate Resolution 684 which called on the US government to explore placing targeted sanctions on members of the ruling CPDM crime syndicate regime in Yaoundé for gross human rights violations in the Federal Republic of Ambazonia.

The exiled Ambazonian leader furthered by calling on the United Nations to establish a fact finding mission to the Southern Cameroons and pointed out that only such a mission would be in position to uncover the gross human rights abuses committed by the soldiers loyal to the Biya French Cameroun regime.

By Vera Eyere Asu

One of President Biya’s numerous cabinet ministers has died from COVID-19, making him the most high profile person in the country to die in the coronavirus outbreak.

Minister Adoum Gargoum, Minister Delegate to the Minister of External Relations, in charge of Cooperation with the Islamic World died some few minutes ago in Yaoundé at the National Social Insurance Hospital, CNPS from Covid-19.

Cameroon Concord News understands that the President Biya acolyte had been placed in confinement after his wife tested positive for COVID 19.

Several cabinet ministers in the Biya regime including Minister Adoum Gargoum have underlying health problems.

This item is still developing

By Rita Akana in Yaounde