The United Nations (UN) has expressed concern about an “alarming” rise in communal violence between Mali’s rival militant groups, which has left hundreds of civilians dead so far this year.

Spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) Rupert Colville said in a statement on Tuesday that at least 289 civilian deaths had occurred in almost 100 incidents since the start of 2018, 77 percent of which occurred in the central Mopti region.

He said that OHCHR staff in the country have documented “an alarming trend of civilians being driven from their homes, either after being directly targeted themselves — because of the community they belong to — or after deadly attacks on members of their community in neighboring villages.

Traditional hunters, commonly known as Dozos, who are linked to the Dogon ethnic group, are allegedly carrying out attacks against the ethnic Fulani community.

Dozos have been engaged in a long-running conflict with the ethnic herders over land, grazing grounds, and water rights.

In one of the documented attacks, which occurred on July 1, 16 Fulani civilians were allegedly killed by Dogon militia elements in a village called Bombou.

Colville’s statement said, “Some of [the victims were] reportedly shot inside the local mosque, where they had sought refuge from the attack, while others were burned alive inside their homes. The victims included several elderly people and a 13-year-old child.”

The escalation in violence in Mopti has led to “widespread displacement of a civilian population already vulnerable due to a lack of protection and basic social services provided by the State.”

“In one particularly troubling situation,” the statement said, “an estimated 3,000 displaced members of the Fulani (Peulh) community who have sought refuge in Birga-peulh village (in the Koro area) have been surrounded by Dogon militia and reportedly prevented from leaving the village to seek food and other essential items.”

The OHCHR also urged the government in Mali to take the necessary measures to “prevent further grave violations and abuses of human rights in the region, including those committed by government forces, as a matter of urgency.”

Malians are due to vote in a presidential election on July 29. The incumbent, Ibrahima Boubacar Keita, who took office in 2013, and his rival front-runner Soumaila Cisse are expected to be the two main candidates.

Amid the surge in violence and fears of militant attacks, over 30,000 security officers have been mobilized, according to the Interior Ministry, to “secure candidates on the ground and voting operations.”

Voter turnout is also expected to be low due to the rise in the violence.

Source: Presstv

The U.S. State Department on Monday condemned the release of a video appearing to show soldiers in Cameroon killing a woman and infant, among others.

As President Paul Biya, 85, prepares to run for a seventh term as president, foreign governments and human rights organizations are increasingly sounding the alarm on growing violence between French and English speakers in the country.

Biya announced that he would seek a seventh term as president on Friday, having clocked 36 years as the nation’s head of state in which most of the country, but not those in government, have experienced a significant economic decline. Should Biya win the election, he will be 92 years old by the time his latest term ends.

Another significant issue with Biya’s rule is that he does not live in Cameroon for much of the year, preferring Switzerland to his own country. The New York Times noted this week that Biya has spent 4.5 of his 36 years in office abroad, even though his country faces major economic challenges, regular terrorist attacks on the part of neighboring Nigeria’s Boko Haram, and growing strife between francophone and anglophone Cameroonians.

According to Voice of America, few doubt that Biya will be able to keep power, given that his announcement of an intent to run triggered almost immediate support from a variety of smaller parties unaffiliated with his ruling Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement.

Specifically, one minority party leader reportedly endorsed Biya because he “is the right person and the real person to handle the anglophone problem.”

Protests have been ongoing in Southern Cameroons, the English-speaking part of the country, since November 2016. Anglophones complain that the government gives favorable treatment to those who speak French and have largely ostracized English speakers from society. Among the complaints have been the failure of the government to translated laws and important documents into English and the imposition of French in schools where most speak English, despite both French and English being official state languages.

Biya’s government has responded to protests largely with violence, triggering the rise of a secessionist movement to establish a new, English-speaking country called Ambazonia. Biya himself has promised to take “all measures” to end the uprising.

The violence in Southern Cameroons made headlines again this weekend with the surfacing of a video on social media appearing to show government soldiers killing two women and two children, one an infant. The NGO Amnesty International confirmed last week that it had “gathered credible evidence” that the men in uniform in the video were indeed soldiers acting under Biya’s authority. Biya’s government has denied that the video shows state actors, calling it “fake news.”

“Extensive analysis of the weapons, dialogue and uniforms that feature in the video, paired with digital verification techniques and testimonies taken from the ground, all strongly suggest that the perpetrators of the executions are Cameroonian soldiers,” Amnesty International concluded.

The group also concluded that the video was likely filmed in the Far North region of Cameroon, not near the Southern Cameroons area where much of the violence is occurring. The Far North is where Cameroon has many of its run-ins with Boko Haram, however, as it is near Nigeria. Biya has sent troops into the Far North to attempt to find and kill Boko Haram members.

There is no evidence that the women and children in the video have any affiliation to Boko Haram or to Anglophone separatists. Yet the violence depicted has nonetheless triggered outrage in the context of crackdowns against civilians the government uses the fight against both groups to justify. Multiple killings occurred in the South West region of Cameroon last week, as well, the dead belonging to both police forces and Anglophone separatist groups.

“The United States is gravely concerned over the recent video depicting men wearing military-style uniforms executing two women and two children, one an infant,” State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said in a statement Monday. “We call on the Government of Cameroon to investigate thoroughly and transparently the events depicted in the video, make its findings public, and if Cameroonian military personnel were involved in this atrocity, hold them accountable.”

Biya’s government has yet to roll out a campaign platform for the incumbent that addresses concerns with state violence nationwide.

Source: Breitbart.com

Cameroonians fleeing an increasingly bloody separatist conflict have received little aid as humanitarian agencies struggle to access the area, the United Nations said Tuesday.

More than 200,000 people have fled their homes in the volatile western regions since late last year, in addition to at least 21,000 who have fled into Nigeria, said the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

The regions have been gripped by violence since protests by the mainly Francophone country’s Anglophone minority morphed into a secessionist movement last year.

There were no humanitarian agencies in the area before the insurgency, and bad roads, travel restrictions and unpredictable attacks have made it difficult for them to go in, said Modibo Traore, the head of OCHA in Cameroon.

Most of the people who have fled clashes are hiding in the woods, he said. Some have bullet wounds but are afraid to venture into urban areas for medical care.

“The people living in the forest are asking for more assistance, saying that conditions are very difficult,” Traore told Reuters.

“They are sleeping in the open space … in the middle of the rainy season. Many people couldn’t take anything with them.”

OCHA released an emergency response plan in May calling for $15 million to provide food, shelter and other necessities to the displaced, but has received no donations so far, he said.

Medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres began to set up mobile clinics this month in the southwest region, it said in a statement. The people it treated were lacking adequate shelter, drinking water and food, it said.

Cameroonian authorities could not immediately be reached for comment. The government published its own humanitarian assistance plan last month, and it was not clear whether aid delivery had begun.

“Because media access … is very limited, we don’t have a full grasp of the kind of suffering that people are actually going through,” said Elizabeth Mpimbaza, a spokeswoman for the U.N. refugee agency in Nigeria.

Those who fled across the border have also received little humanitarian aid, and are surviving because poor local communities are sharing what they have, Mpimbaza said.

Analysts fear violence could increase ahead of an October election in which President Paul Biya is aiming to extend his 36-year rule.

“I am very worried about the situation,” said Traore of OCHA. “Unfortunately, we are not expecting any improvement anytime soon.”

Source: VOA