Southern Cameroons crisis gets nastier ⁰

There’s been a surge in political violence in Southern Cameroons ahead of parliamentary and municipal elections on 9 February. Amnesty International has accused the army of dozens of killings, the burning of villages, and the displacement of thousands of people as it tries to stamp out a separatist movement.

The anglophone militants demanding independence from the rest of francophone Cameroon have vowed to disrupt the polls and have also stepped up their attacks. They have ordered the closure of schools and markets, and told people to stay indoors between 7 and 12 February.

 The crisis has shuttered more than 40 percent of the health centres in the two regions, and more than 600,000 children are out of school. At least 3,000 civilians have died since the conflict began in 2016, and 730,000 people have been displaced.