Relations between the largely Anglophone regions of Cameroon and the country’s dominant Francophone elite have long been fraught. Over the past three years, tensions have escalated seriously and since October 2017 violent conflict has erupted between armed separatist groups and the security forces, with both sides being accused of committing human rights abuses.

The tensions originate in a complex and contested decolonisation process in the late-1950s and early-1960s, in which Britain, as one of the colonial powers, was heavily involved. Federal arrangements were scrapped in 1972 by a Francophone-dominated central government.

Many English-speaking Cameroonians have long complained that they are politically, economically and linguistically marginalised. Some have called for full independence for the Anglophone regions.

The trigger for the current crisis was the appointment of French-educated judges to courts in the English-speaking regions. Local lawyers demanded their removal and the restoration of a federal system of government.

By the end of 2016, local teachers and lawyers had launched a campaign of strikes and demonstrations. University students and other activists began to get involved too. The security forces responded heavy-handedly. The Internet and all educational institutions were closed down.

Tensions remained high during the first half of 2017. Then, on 1 October 2017, the anniversary of Anglophone Cameroon’s independence from the UK, Anglophone separatists unilaterally declared independence. Mass demonstrations were met with force. Amnesty International estimated that at least 17 people were killed in the clashes.

Since then, numerous armed separatist groups have emerged and begun a violent campaign for independence. The security forces have responded in kind. Both sides stand accused of committing serious human rights abuses. Ordinary civilians are often caught in the middle – at least 500 have reportedly died. More than 400,000 people have been displaced, with over 30,000 crossing into Nigeria. There have also been reports of clashes between rival armed separatist groups.

Seriously flawed presidential elections took place in Cameroon in October 2018. 85 year-old president Paul Biya, who has been in office since 1982, sought re-election and won again. The runner-up, Maurice Kamto, leader of the Cameroon Renaissance Movement (MRC), who had expressed sympathy for some Anglophone grievances, disputed the result and claimed victory. He called for peaceful protests.

Despite a heavy security clampdown, there was a mass boycott of the vote in the Anglophone regions. This was the main reason why Joshua Osih, the candidate of the party which traditionally has garnered most support in the Anglophone regions, the Social Democratic Front, finished fourth.

There has so far been no improvement in the situation during 2019. If anything, levels of violence have increased. In a report issued on 28 March, Human Rights Watch said that since October “at least 170 civilians have been killed in over 220 incidents in the North-West and South-West regions.”

Protests called by the MRC took place in several cities in January 2019. Then on 28 January, Kamto and other leaders of the MRC were arrested , leading to more protests. In mid-February he and 130 of his supporters were charged by a military court with rebellion, insurrection and “hostility to the Fatherland”. In April, the authorities banned some planned MRC demonstrations.

So, what are the prospects? The outlook looks bleak. Although international engagement on the Anglophone Cameroon crisis has gradually increased, there are no signs currently that this will produce a change of stance on the part of either the Cameroon government or the armed separatists. Mediation efforts by the Catholic Church have so far led nowhere.

It is impossible to say how many people in the two Anglophone regions support secession. Some might still be satisfied by a return to meaningful federalism. But there is no indication that the central government is willing to consider restoring anything approaching federalism. Cosmetic measures remain the order of the day.

Official intransigence appears to be strengthening the hands of the secessionists. There are serious tensions between some of the different armed separatist groups involved on the ground, which further complicates the prospects for a peaceful settlement further down the line.

Source: Researchbriefings

Cameroon, a country previously known for its stability, faced violence and serious human rights abuses in 2018. The country endured abusive military operations against a secessionist insurgency in two Anglophone regions, attacks by the Islamic militant group, Boko Haram, in the Far North, and a worsening humanitarian crisis. President Paul Biya, 85, won a seventh seven-year term on October 7. 

In the South West and North West, government security forces have committed extrajudicial executions, burned property, carried out arbitrary arrests, and tortured detainees. A Human Rights Watch report documented a range of abuses by both sides in the Anglophone regions, including arson attacks on homes and schools. According to the International Crisis Group, government forces and armed separatists killed over 420 civilians in the regions since the crisis escalated in 2017.

The humanitarian consequences of the Boko Haram attacks and separatist insurgency are of growing concern. As of November, the United Nations estimated that more than 244,000 civilians were displaced in the Far North and  437,500 in the Anglophone North West and South West regions. About 32,600 Cameroonians found refuge in Nigeria. Also, Cameroon has continued to forcibly return Nigerian asylum seekers, fleeing Boko Haram attacks in northeastern Nigeria.

While the government maintained it did not tolerate serious crimes committed by security forces, it failed to demonstrate progress in investigating and punishing them.

On October 22, Cameroon’s Constitutional Council validated Paul Biya’s reelection, with 71.28 percent of the votes. The council’s decision was immediately contested by one of Biya’s rivals, Maurice Kamto, who claimed the results had been altered. In early November, dozens of pro-Kamto protesters were arrested in Bafoussam, Western region. Biya was sworn-in for a seventh term as president on November 6.

The Anglophone Crisis: Abuses on Both Sides

In the Anglophone North West and South West regions, the absence of a genuine political process to address decades-old grievances against the Biya government contributed to the radicalization of the discourse and tactics of Anglophone activists. Since mid-2017, Anglophone separatists have attacked government institutions and threatened, kidnapped, and killed civilians perceived to side with the government.

In 2016 and 2017, government security forces used excessive force against largely peaceful demonstrations organized by members of the country’s Anglophone minority who were calling for increased autonomy for their region. During demonstrations in late 2017, government forces used live ammunition, including from helicopters, against demonstrators and bystanders, killing at least a dozen people and injuring scores. Some individuals detained in the context of the demonstrations were subjected to torture and ill-treatment.

In October 2017, separatist leaders unilaterally declared independence of the North West and South West regions, and the formation of a new nation, Ambazonia. The following month, President Biya announced that Cameroon was under attack from terrorists and vowed to “eradicate these criminals.” The pace and scale of separatists’ attacks against security forces, government workers, and state institutions increased, especially following the arrest and deportation of 47 suspected secessionist activists from Nigeria in January 2018.

Violations by Government Forces

Human Rights Watch found that government forces responded to the growing separatist insurgency by carrying out abusive security operations against communities suspected of supporting secessionist groups. Security forces committed extrajudicial executions, used excessive force against civilians, tortured and abused suspected separatists and other detainees, and burned homes and other property in scores of villages.

During attacks documented by Human Rights Watch, security forces allegedly shot and killed over a dozen civilians, including at least seven people whom witnesses said had intellectual, psychosocial or physical disabilities who did not flee because they were unable or refused to. At least four older women died, burned alive, after security forces set their homes on fire.

Human Rights Watch also documented three cases where security forces detained people suspected of supporting the secessionist cause, and then tortured and killed them in detention. In a fourth case, Human Rights Watch analyzed evidence of torture filmed by perpetrators, who appear to be gendarmes. On September 24 and 27, a total of nine men were allegedly executed by security forces in the town of Buea, according to videos reviewed by Human Rights Watch and a report by the Centre for Human Rights and Democracy in Africa, a local nongovernmental organization (NGO).

Abuses by Armed Separatists: Attacks on Students, Teachers and Schools  

To enforce boycotts of schools following protests by Anglophone teachers against perceived discrimination by the Francophone-dominated national government, separatist groups attacked and burned dozens of schools, threatened teachers, students and parents, kidnapped principals and violently attacked teachers and students. In March, people believed to be armed separatists attacked a high school dormitory in Widikum, North West region, and shot dead Emmanuel Galega, a student.

The pressure tactics forced the majority of schools to close during the 2016-2017 academic year, and as of May 2018 an estimated 42,500 children were still out of school, according to UN Office for Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). Most schools did not re-open in 2018. 

On April 30, Father William Neba, principal of St. Bede’s College, in Ashing near Belo, North West region, was reported abducted while celebrating mass with students. He was released two days later. The school suspended classes on the day of the abduction.  In September, unidentified gunmen attacked a girl’s school in Bafut, North West region, kidnapping five pupils and severely wounding the principal.

In September, the government endorsed the Safe Schools Declaration, an international political agreement to protect education during armed conflict.

On November 5, up to 78 schoolchildren were reportedly kidnapped in Bamenda, North West region, by unknown gunmen. They were released two days later.

Refugee Rights

Cameroon hosts more than 350,000 refugees and asylum seekers, including 260,000 from the Central African Republic and at least 90,000 from Nigeria. Despite its long history of hosting refugees, Cameroon has forcibly returned tens of thousands of Nigerian asylum seekers since 2015. A 2017 Human Rights Watch report documented how soldiers used violence and abuse, including torture, against asylum seekers in remote border regions. Authorities also imposed unlawful restrictions on movement in Cameroon’s only official camp for Nigerian refugees. In August 2018, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees reported that between January and July, Cameroon unlawfully returned at least 800 refugees and asylum seekers to Nigeria.

Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity

Cameroon’s penal code punishes “sexual relations between persons of the same sex” with up to five years in prison. Police and gendarmes continued to carry out arrests and harassment of people they believe to be lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender (LGBT). In April, police arrested four activists and a security guard at the office of AJO, an organization that works on HIV education with men who have sex with men (MSM), and other vulnerable groups. They spent a week in jail on spurious homosexuality charges before a lawyer secured their release. Cameroonian human rights organizations documented the arrest of at least 25 other men and at least two women on homosexuality charges in the first half of 2018. They also reported numerous cases of physical violence by private citizens targeting LGBT people.

Justice and Accountability

While the government has repeatedly promised to investigate crimes committed by security forces, it has not done so transparently or systematically.

Government officials told Human Rights Watch in June that while they conducted investigations, they did not want to make them public to avoid undermining the morale of government troops. However, the visible lack of accountability appears to have fueled abuses, like arson and torture, rather than ending them.

In July, the government finally granted access to ten Anglophone leaders who had been detained and deported from Nigeria to Cameroon in January. The individuals, held incommunicado for over six months, were permitted to meet their lawyers and the International Committee of the Red Cross.

The government dismissed video footage that emerged in July showing two women and two children being executed by men in uniform in Cameroon’s Far North as “fake news.” Only after an investigation conducted by Amnesty International demonstrated the killings took place in Cameroon did the government announce it had arrested six soldiers suspected of executing the civilians in the video. 

Key International Actors

France, the United States, and the United Kingdom are Cameroon’s principal partners, primarily in the context of the counter Boko Haram operations in the country’s Far North region. Both France and the US provide Cameroon with military and security assistance and training.

The US and the UK are the only close allies of Cameroon to have voiced public concern regarding the ongoing situation in the Anglophone regions. The US has continued to provide military aid to Cameroon.

In February, the European Union called for proportionate use of force and accountability for abuses in the Anglophone region.

In September 2018, as the pace and scope of abuses continued to escalate in Cameroon’s Anglophone regions, the UN and African Union issued a joint communiqué calling on the government to facilitate access to humanitarian and human rights organizations and engage in an inclusive dialogue to address the root causes of the crisis.

The UN Security Council in August expressed concern about the situation in Cameroon’s Anglophone regions.

Culled from Human Rights Watch

Acrow Bridge, a leading international bridge engineering and supply company, is pleased to announce the installation of the first of 44 bridges provided to the Government of Cameroon as part of Acrow’s financed Comprehensive Bridge Development Program delivered in 2018. In addition to the supply of the bridges, the program provides the extensive training of local engineers and technicians in the assembly, installation and maintenance of these critical infrastructure assets.

Designed to contribute to the repair and modernization of Cameroon’s rural infrastructure, the project will support the development of regional trade and provide better access to schools, medical clinics and other basic goods and services. The modular steel bridges, prefabricated in the United States, are single- and multi-span double-lane structures ranging from 12 meters to more than 120 meters in length, which will be installed throughout the country by the local workforce. Acrow will continue to provide technical advisory services on-site to select installations.

Since its founding in 1951, Acrow has delivered bridging solutions in over 80 countries, with more than 2000 structures having been installed in developing countries over the last decade. Over the past two decades, Acrow has been engaged in more than 20 countries in Africa in the delivery of well over a thousand bridges and the training of thousands of African engineers and contractors in bridge assembly, installation and maintenance.

Through its financed Comprehensive Bridge Development Program model, Acrow has worked on a number of large infrastructure development projects in Africa, including the supply of more than 150 bridges to the Government of Angola, 100 bridges to the Department of Feeder Roads in Ghana and recently, more than 130 bridges to the government of Zambia. Financing for the project in Cameroon was arranged by Acrow Bridge via a lending facility extended by Societe Generale Bank, a Paris-based international financial institution, and loan guarantees issued by the U.S. Export-Import Bank (EXIM Bank). In 2016, this project was awarded EXIM Bank’s “Deal of the Year.”

Acrow’s prefabricated steel bridges are well-suited for infrastructure development projects, as they offer a number of advantages over other types of bridges. Acrow’s modular design allows for the easy customization of each structure to meet specific site requirements, which often enables bridges to be erected in challenging, remote locations. Installations are typically completed in days or weeks, employing the local workforce and requiring minimal heavy equipment. Acrow bridges are durable and permanent infrastructure solutions designed to withstand even the most rugged of conditions with a service life of 75 years or more. Acrow’s modular components are fabricated in the U.S. from high-strength, high-quality U.S. steel and hot-dip zinc galvanized to protect against corrosion.

“It is extremely gratifying to see this project come to fruition, with Acrow bridges now being installed across Cameroon and to the benefit of the Cameroonian people,” said Paul Sullivan, Senior Vice President – International at Acrow Bridge. “Acrow is privileged to have worked with the Government of Cameroon, EXIM Bank and other stakeholders on this important project, which required a collaborative, solution-oriented approach to successfully manage the complex set of technical, logistical and financial challenges.”

“Strong infrastructure is fundamental to competitiveness, stability and sustainable economic growth anywhere in the world,” added Bill Killeen, CEO of Acrow. “The relationships we have established with different African nations over the years have resulted in some of our most gratifying achievements as a company, as our bridges help connect people and communities in ways that support the expansion of prosperity for individuals, businesses and governments.”

Source: Yahoo

The case against President Sisisku Ayuk Tabe and his top aides has been adjourned to May 17. The Ambazonian leader and members of his cabinet failed to appear in court as stated in a press release that was made public by lawyers over the weekend.

Cameroon Concord News understands that the defense team had hinted the Yaounde Military Tribunal of their decision not to be part of any trial after the case was taken on appeal to a pro CPDM Appeal Court in Yaounde.

The lawyers had opined that they were not satisfied with the decision of the Military tribunal that opened up legal proceedings against the Southern Cameroons leaders in Yaounde despite holding refugee and asylum-seeking status in the Federal Republic of Nigeria. They want the Appeal Court to look into the matter and order the Military tribunal to send the Ambazonian leaders back to Nigeria where they were abducted by agents of the corrupt Nigerian Secret Service.

By Sama Ernest with files from Journal du Cameroun

A military response will not solve the ongoing Anglophone crisis in Cameroon, says a spokesman for the local Catholic Church.

About 80 percent of Cameroon is French-speaking. However, the Northwest and Southwest regions of Cameroon are majority English-speaking.

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.’

“Anywhere on Planet Earth, military response has never ever solved a problem. So let us not dream that we would be the first people to start on Planet Earth. Nowhere!” Father Humphrey Tata Mbuy told Crux.

Mbuy is the director of communications for the Archdiocese of Bamenda, the capital of the Northwest region of the country.

In its 2019 Report, Human Rights Watch accused the Cameroon military of committing extrajudicial executions, burning property, carrying out arbitrary arrests, and torturing detainees. The group claims over 500 people have been killed in the country.

The United Nations estimates nearly 500,000 refugees and internally displaced persons have fled their homes in the region due to the conflict.

The Cameroonian government has refuted reports of abuse by its military, calling them “reckless.”

However, Mbuy said the number of people killed is staggering, noting that 358 people have been killed in the Kumbo diocese in the last 6 months. He also said the diocese saw more than 800 homes burnt to the ground.

“It would take another generation for people to establish confidence in their military. This is the worst thing that can happen to a country where the population itself starts being afraid of the people who should be protecting them,” the priest said. He recounted that during Holy Week, the Cameroonians created a “harrowing” experience for the local population.

“We were coming out of Church on Holy Thursday and Good Friday in the Cathedral when there was just rampant shooting and there were military people around the Church premises. People were coming out and people ran back. Who provoked it? What was the problem? What was happening?” Mbuy said.

“So if you have these kind of things repeatedly happening, where you see clearly, houses burnt, villages burnt and people can identify who is burning them; when you see property being looted and people can identify who is looting them, it’s not things that are done in the dark. When a priest is shot and we can see the people who have shot, why do you expect people to still have trust when all these things have repeatedly gone on? When people are molested for no reason, some who don’t even know what is happening,” he continued.

Mbuy reaffirmed what the English-speaking bishops asserted in 2017: The situation in the Anglophone region is becoming like a genocide.

“What is genocide? A genocide is somebody is killed, even if it’s just one person, precisely for not doing anything because he belongs either to this group or because he belongs to this region. That is what a genocide is. Why are people being killed? When soldiers go into a village in Wum and are shooting everywhere. Is that everybody in Wum has suddenly become a terrorist? I would ask anybody to define a genocide and look at what is happening and tell me whether we have genocide or not,” the priest told Crux.

Cameroon’s bilingualism is a legacy of its colonial history. The country 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.

Last year, the Brussels-based International Crisis Group issued a report saying the Church is the only institution with the moral authority to broker a peace deal.

Source: Crux

The chairman of Cameroon’s main opposition party Ni John Fru Ndi has been released after being kidnapped earlier Saturday in the Northwest Region, one of two English-speaking provinces in the grip of an armed conflict for over a year, his party said.

The SDF leader was abducted while leading a funeral procession, his party said earlier, without giving any indication of whether the kidnappers were believed to be separatists.

“President Ni John Fru Ndi has just been freed at 1834 (1734 GMT),” Social Democratic Front (SDF) official Jean Robert Wafo said in a statement.

A number of officials and members of the SDF have already been targeted in similar attacks.

In October 2018, Fru Ndi’s home was attacked by arsonists and his sister kidnapped and later released.

His party is the main opposition to 86-year-old President Paul Biya who has ruled Cameroon since 1982.

It has always opposed any partition of the country and defied separatists in the English-speaking regions who called for a boycott of the last presidential election in October.

Conflict in Cameroon, a majority French-speaking nation, broke out in October 2017 when anglophone militants declared an independent state in the Northwest and Southwest Regions.

The International Crisis Group has said the death toll since the start of the fighting had topped 500 for civilians and more than 200 for members of the security forces.

Around 530,000 people have fled the fighting, according to the United Nations.

English-speakers, who account for about a fifth of Cameroon’s population of 24 million, have chafed for years at perceived discrimination in education, law and economic opportunities at the hands of the francophone majority.

The self-declared entity, the “Republic of Ambazonia,” which has been named after the local Ambas Bay, has not been recognised internationally.

AFP

Since 2014, Boko Haram’s insurgency has wreaked havoc in the Far-North region of Cameroon, displacing 244,347 people as of January 2019. As Cameroon grapples with this challenge, a relatively new and poorly understood crisis is simultaneously unfolding in the country’s North-West and South-West regions which, as of March 2019, has led to the displacement of 530,000 Cameroonians.

Here are five things to know about Cameroon’s North-West and South-West Crisis:

1. One Country – Two Languages

The Republic of Cameroon is a bilingual country with French and English as its official languages. Two out of Cameroon’s 10 administrative regions are English-speaking. They are the North-West and South-West Regions, which comprise about 20 percent of the country’s total population. The language split is derived from Cameroon’s colonial and post-colonial history. Prior to World War I, Cameroon was a German colony named Kamerun. Germany’s defeat in World War I saw Kamerun split between two League of Nations mandates. The first came under French Mandate which consisted of the majority of the former German territory, and the second under British mandate named the ‘British Cameroons’, consisting of two territories, Northern Cameroons and Southern Cameroons, located along the border of Nigeria. As Cameroon and Nigeria both gained independence in 1960, the question of what would become of the territories in the British Cameroons arose. In 1961 a referendum was held in which the citizens of the British Cameroons were given a choice of either merging with Nigeria or with French-speaking Cameroon. The results of the referendum saw the region known as Northern Cameroons merge with Nigeria, while the Southern Cameroons merged with Cameroon. As a result, in 1961 the English-speaking Southern Cameroons became a part of Cameroon and today the territory formerly known as the Southern Cameroons now forms Cameroon’s North-West and South-West Regions.

2. Protests and Disquiet Though the country has both French and English as official languages, activists in the two English-speaking regions have for a long period reported feeling marginalised. Their concerns reached fever pitch in 2016 when large protests were held in both the North-West and South-West regions about the appointment of French-speaking magistrates to preside over courts, as well as the posting of French-speaking teachers, in the English-speaking regions.  The protests grew in scale, prompting a heavy crack down on protesters by security forces which led to widespread violence.

3. Violence and Fear

In 2017 non-state armed groups in the two regions officially declared their symbolic independence from Cameroon. The government of Cameroon rejected this secession and the Cameroonian army is currently leading a fierce crackdown against the non-state armed groups in both regions. Clashes between the parties escalated in 2018 and 2019, over which period both parties have been accused of horrific human rights violations.

4. Civilians bearing the brunt As is often the case, civilians are bearing the brunt of this conflict, with over 530,000 Cameroonians being forced to flee their homes, according to the UN. Many displaced citizens fled their villages to seek refuge in larger cities. Alfred, 42, who fled with his family from their village to Bamenda, the capital of the North-West region, said this about his decision to leave: “The moment I decided to leave was just out of reflex, because what I was experiencing was not the best, there were killings, there were burnings of houses and in fact it was not the best environment for people to live in so that’s how we decided to leave…. it was not safe for me.” While those who are able to relocate to the relative safety of bigger cities do so, several displaced people are either unable or afraid to, left instead to hide from both the non-state armed groups and the Cameroonian military in the ‘bush’ or dense thickets that surround both the North-West and South-West regions.

5. NRC is Responding to the Crisis

With offices in both regions, the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) is responding to the crisis. Working with partners such as local NGOs and local churches, NRC identifies displaced people in both regions and their surroundings, and assists them by distributing kits containing household items, as well as shelter and hygiene packs. NRC has distributed 3,918 Shelter and non-food item kits and has reached 23,912 persons through non-food item distributions and hygiene promotion sessions Since the beginning of 2018. As more people flee their homes and thousands more are in dire need of aid, we are working to reach as many people as possible with assistance.

Source: Norwegian Refugee Council

A Cameroonian gendarmerie officer was kidnapped and beheaded on Wednesday by an unknown Southern Cameroons Liberation Force in the Muyuka Sub Constituency in Fako County.

The young officer deployed to Southern Cameroons by the regime in Yaounde had been reportedly kidnapped. Cameroon Concord News gathered that he was then beheaded by the Ambazonian fighters, who eviscerated him.

The viscera of the Francophone officer were scattered in pieces in some few corners of Muyuka. The gendarme’s head was abandoned on the main road linking Muyuka to Buea. It is difficult to establish the group behind the act.

However, the Biya Francophone Beti Ewondo regime announced recently that several secessionist camps were dismantled on Tuesday night and 6 Ambazonian fighters killed in fighting in Kwakwa and Bafut.

Ever since the English speaking people of Southern Cameroons declared the independence of their own state, clashes between Ambazonian Restoration Forces and troops loyal to the regime in Yaounde have been reported all over the Ambazonian territory.

According to Human Rights Watch, more than half a million Southern Cameroonians have been displaced and several hundred killed by Francophone soldiers.

By Sama Ernest in Buea

Hundreds of Cameroonian women gathered in the capital this week to urge the government to stop the killings in the country’s Anglophone separatist western regions. Weeks of violent clashes in those areas have left at least 70 people dead.

The event Thursday at the Yaounde conference center saw about 700 women from various cultural associations call for efforts to end fighting in the English-speaking regions.

Teacher Elizabeth Mankaa, who organized the groups, said most of the women have lost family members or belongings in battles between the military and separatists.

“The northwest and the southwest region are suffering, and we are here to cry like mothers so that the government should hear our cry and stop this crisis,” she said.

Cameroon’s Ministry of Defense said in a statement that dozens of separatists have been killed within the past two weeks.

The Catholic dioceses in the regions said they counted at least 70 bodies, including those of civilians and military members.

Mankaa said all of the victims were children of Cameroon, dying in what she described as a senseless war.

​Government to separatists: Surrender

At a separate event Thursday, Prime Minister Joseph Dion Ngute claimed Cameroon’s military is winning the fight. He called on the wives and mothers of separatists to persuade them to surrender.

“I have it on very good information that a lot of those young people out in the bushes are there in spite of themselves,” he said. “They want to come out, but many do not know how to come out. Talk to them [in] a language of fraternity, that we are begging them to leave the bush because they are our own. They are our children.”

Daniel Mukete, a political analyst at the Cameroon Rehabilitation Center for Victims of Conflicts, says the government cannot declare war and deploy heavily armed troops, then expect separatists to disarm.

“Let the enabling condition for an inclusive dialogue be set. Let violence [cease]. Let guns stop being heard. Let the people feel free to express their minds,” Mukete said.

He added that rebel fighters will only believe that troops will not kill them if they withdraw.

​Humanitarian principles

Liberian peace activist and 2011 Nobel Peace Prize winner Leymah Roberta Gbowee was at another Yaounde-related event Thursday. She warned that Cameroon will descend into chaos if there are no talks to bring peace to the separatist regions.

“From my own experience as a Liberian, I think it is important that Cameroonians come to the place where there is consensus on humanitarian principles,” she said. “When you hear stories of women using leaves for sanitary pads and people giving birth in the bushes, you know that it is time for leaders to take a step back and say we need to think about the humanity of the people.”

International pressure is growing over the worsening conditions in Cameroon’s Anglophone regions.

The European Union’s top diplomat, Federica Mogherini, on Thursday called for talks between the government and rebels as the only way to achieve a sustainable solution.

In a speech at the European Parliament, she said the humanitarian consequences were alarming with about half a million internally displaced people and more than 32,000 Cameroon refugees registered in Nigeria.

More than 1,500 people have been killed in Cameroon’s English-speaking regions since fighting broke out in 2017.

The unrest was sparked by English-speaking teachers and lawyers protesting Francophone dominance.

Armed rebels took over the movement, demanding independence for an English-speaking state they call “Ambazonia.” Their demands were met with a government crackdown and calls to surrender or be killed.

Source: VOA

The residence of the late Menchum I CPDM Section President, Chuo Cyprian Akwo, has been destroyed by flames in Wum. This has left his family counting their losses.

The family was asleep when they were awaken by heat and realised that their house was on fire.  They quickly called for help that never came even from the so-called Cameroon government soldiers parading the area. The family believes the fire was started by a political detractor.

However, there are conflicting reports coming out of Wum with some suggesting that the incident was a vicious and malicious attack staged by armed separatist fighters while others have opined that Ambazonia Restoration Forces were not involved in the attack.

The CPDM politician’s residence was set ablaze just few days after he died in Yaounde from an undisclosed illness.  Family members have announced his final burial rites for May 4 in Aghem, Wum.

By Sama Ernest