Southern Cameroons Crisis: The killing won’t stop ⁰

The killings in Southern Cameroons will not be ending anytime soon, especially as all the factions involved are determined to win on the battlefield though many experts have clearly indicated a military victory will never be possible.

For its part, the government has intensified its military efforts in the two English-speaking regions in the hope that by winning the war in those regions, it could focus on other insurgencies in the northern and eastern parts of the country.

As the world turns its focus on the Trump-orchestrated drama in Washington DC, the Yaoundé government is taking advantage of the confusion to commit heinous human rights violations in the country’s two English-speaking regions.

On Sunday, government army soldiers descended on Mautu in Muyuka in the country’s Southwest region where it gunned down some ten innocent civilians, most of whom are women and children.

Donald Trump’s political miscalculations in the United States are empowering many dictators across the globe and this is very likely to result in devastating human rights abuses in countries such as Cameroon.

The government human rights abuses are on the rise in Cameroon and with the confusion in Southern Cameroons intensifying, army soldiers are killing civilians with impunity.

The government has a lot on its hands and its frustrations are mounting by the day. Besides the crisis in Southern Cameroons, Boko Haram is wreaking havoc in the country’s northern region where hundreds of soldiers and civilians were slaughtered last week.

But it is in the Eastern region that a huge storm is brewing. Russians are determined to elbow the French out of the Central African Republic where a French-sponsored civil war is spreading death and destruction in the country.

The fighting in the Central African country is gradually spreading to Cameroon and there is growing fear that the Russians might come to Cameroon to destabilize the corrupt Yaounde government.

Last week, Cameroon’s 87-year-old president, Paul Biya, had to dispatch the Secretary General at the Presidency, Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh, to Equatorial Guinea to plead with Equatorial  Guinea’s president to help secure the border between the two countries, an action which clearly highlights the fear ripping the government apart.

But it is not only the government that is committing abuses. Ambazonian fighters are also guilty of heinous crimes which must be condemned by the international community.

Yesterday, the principal of Government High School Ossing in the Southwest region, Mr. Ayuk Martin, was killed by reckless and trigger-happy boys.

Though the principal is being accused of betrayal and collaboration with the government, many observers in the war-torn regions point out that nothing can justify the killing of another human being. Such killings have been counter-productive and they have given the revolution a very bad name.

Also, another principal was shot in Tinto, a town some 50 km from Mamfe. The principal was shot in the leg and is now recovering in a local hospital.

But a manager with PAMOL, a state-owned oil-producing business in Ndian Division of the Southwest region of the country was killed on Sunday for cooperating with the government. Some workers of the institution were also amputated, an act which has generated swift and open condemnation.

Last week was indeed a disaster to the country’s military. The same insurgents attacked and killed three soldiers returning from a mission in Njikwa, Momo Division in the Northwest region with the Senior Divisional Officer (SDO). The Momo Divisional delegate of Communication was also murdered and she was the only civilian killed in the ambush. The SDO, who was the target of the ambush, survived and he is currently thanking his lucky stars.

Similarly, another ambush at Matazen checkpoint in the Northwest region brought down more than five gendarmes and three civilians last Friday, making the week one of the bloodiest for Cameroon’s military.

From every indication, if the international community does not step in, the killings in Southern Cameroons might not end, especially as some military and government officials are making huge proceeds from the confusion playing out in Southern Cameroons.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai