Contrary to a video circulating on social media that Amba fighters had slaughtered some 30 people in a small locality in Akwaya Sub-Division in Manyu Division, it is gradually emerging that the deaths have been caused by an ignored long-standing land dispute between two communities which have been at each other’s throat for decades.

A Cameroon Concord News source in the Division’s capital has informed the Cameroon Concord News Group’s Editor-in-Chief that the incident which started as a land dispute between the Oliti people and the Messaga Ekol people of Akwaya turned deadly when elements of the Oliti community attacked and killed some Messaga Ekol people on their farms on April 29, 2022.

The current incident caused by the Messaga Ekol community is retaliation, our source has said.

The Olitis have been mobilizing for months, the source pointed out, adding that with the help of some armed men whom they hired, most of whom are suspected of being Nigerians, launched a vicious attack which resulted in the deaths of some 30 Messaga  people.

Their homes were also burned and some people were burned while asleep as the attack took place at night, our source added.The attacks led to the burning down of houses during which some people were burnt in their houses, including children and women, an idea corroborated by a Presbyterian Church press release issued on Monday.

With chaos playing out in many parts of the country, especially in the  two English-speaking regions of the country where the government has lost control of things, many people are using the crisis to settle old scores.

There is no government presence in those communities and with the police and army scared of venturing into such areas, it clear that the violence resulting from land disputes will continue to escalate, our source said.

The Cameroon Concord News Group has asked its correspondents in Mamfe to gather more information in the days ahead with a view to shading more light on an issue which has nothing to do with the Southern Cameroons crisis.

It should be underscored that due to false intelligence following the death of four gendarme officers in Agborkem German in Manyu Division located on the Cameroon side of the Cross River, the Yaoundé government hastily rushed soldiers to the locality, causing the Southern Cameroons crisis to take a violent turn which will take years to check.

The four gendarme officers who were killed were not killed by Southern Cameroonians because of the crisis which was triggered by the torturing of lawyers and teachers by government police officers in Buea and Bamenda.

The gendarme officers were killed by Nigerian smugglers whose goods had been seized by those gendarme officers as it is a practice among Cameroonian police and gendarme officers.

To cover the matter up, the gendarme officers in Eyumojock misled the government in Yaounde and since the government only believes in violence, it immediately rushed soldiers to Agborkem German where the locals were tortured and young men forced to have sex with their mothers and grandmothers.

That was what caused the crisis to escalate. Biya was misled to declare a war at the airport in Yaounde upon his arrival from a summit in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire.

The government must investigate the issues in Akwaya. It must not let these issues to fester. Government indifference is responsible for most crises in the country and because of the crisis in the two English-speaking regions of the country, government incompetence is now blamed on Amba boys who have nothing to do with the land dispute or the killing of 30 people in Akwaya.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

At least 26 villagers were killed in an attack on Saturday in the Akwaya district of Cameroon’s South-West region, where separatist insurgencies have added fuel to long-running inter-ethnic conflicts over land, local sources said on Monday.

The district medical officer, Enow Daniel Kewong, said 26 bodies had been found so far and other people were still missing after the attack on Ballin village, near the border with Nigeria.

Source: Reuters

Anglophone separatists in Cameroon have killed at least seven people and carried out scores of kidnappings since January, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said on Monday, in a further condemnation of alleged abuses by the rebels.

“Armed separatist groups are kidnapping, terrorizing, and killing civilians across the English-speaking regions with no apparent fear of being held to account by either their own leaders or Cameroonian law enforcement,” Ilaria Allegrozzi, HRW’s senior central Africa researcher, said in a report.

A conflict in Cameroon’s Northwest Region and Southwest Region has raged for nearly five years, pitching government forces against anglophones campaigning to secede from the majority French-speaking state.

The rights watchdog said rebels had killed at least seven people, injured six more, raped a girl and kidnapped as many as 82 people since January “in an uptick of violence.”

The separatists have targeted schools, torching at least two facilities, and attacked a university, it said.

The allegations are based on interviews with several dozen victims and witnesses as well as medical records and visual evidence, HRW said.

In 2017, mounting anglophone resentment at perceived discrimination snowballed into the declaration of an independent state — the “Federal Republic of Ambazonia,” an entity that is not recognised internationally.

The country’s veteran president Paul Biya, 89, who has ruled with an iron fist for nearly 40 years, responded with a crackdown.

The violence has claimed more than 6,000 lives and displaced around a million people, according to the International Crisis Group (ICG) think tank.

Schools have been attacked or boycotted as perceived symbols of the state — a campaign that in 2019 left some 850,000 children without denied access to education, according to UNICEF figures.

“These abusive calls (for school boycotts) trample the basic rights of an already terrorized civilian population,” HRW said.

The UN and international NGOs have accused both sides of human rights abuses.

HRW renewed this allegation, saying government troops had committed rights violations including “extensive burning of villages, homes, and shops, killings, torture, mistreatment, incommunicado detention and rape of civilians.”

On June 1, soldiers in the Northwest Region killed nine civilians, including a baby, the defence ministry said, describing the deaths as a “grave and unfortunate incident.”

Source: AFP

Benue State Government has advised Southern Cameroonian Refugees in Ikyogen, Kwande Local Government Area of the state to adhere to the laws of the land by ensuring peaceful coexistence within the community.

The Executive Secretary of Benue State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA), Dr Emmanuel Shior, gave the charge while commemorating this year’s World Refugees Day.

Represented at the occasion by the Senior Special Adviser to the Governor, Mr David Azenda, the Executive Secretary also identified with the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) who are facing similar humanitarian crisis and appreciated the host community of Ikyogen, UNHCR and other Development Partners for their collective support.

In his remarks, the Team Leader of the National Commission for Refugee, Migration and IDPs Adikpo Field Officer, Mr Adeyemi Oluwaseyi, said there were more than 26.6 million refugees, out of which 76 Cameroonians were being hosted in Nigeria.

An officer of the UNHCR, who also spoke at the occasion, explained that the event focused on raising awareness of the plight and demonstrating to victims that their rights must be protected and treated with dignity.

The Paramount ruler of Kwande, the Ter Kwande, HRH, Chief Timothy Ahile, assured the refugees of the host community’s support and protection throughout their stay in the area, calling on them to be law abiding.

Two Refugees, Mr. Zefania Ekan and Mr. Chafa, also commended the state government, the host community and development partners for providing food and shelter for them in their trying moment.

Source: The Will Nigeria

A pro Yaoundé armed group that was created by the Minister of Territorial Administration Paul Atanga Nji to infiltrate Southern Cameroons Self Defense Groups has reportedly killed a thermal centre worker in Bamenda.

Cameroon Concord News understands the group which no longer receives Cameroon government funding, has now resorted to kidnappings for ransom all in a bid to survive.

The Paul Atanga Nji Boys abducted their victim on Thursday night, June 23 and murdered him as he attempted to escape from captivity.

Yaoundé has blamed the killing on Ambazonia Restoration Forces but at the time of filing this report, the Ambazonia Interim Government was yet to issue a statement on the incident.

After years of chafing at perceived marginalization and discrimination, the people of Southern Cameroons declared an the independent state in 2017 known as the Federal Republic of Ambazonia, triggering a crackdown by the Francophone authorities.

The spiral of fighting has claimed more than 10,000 lives and prompted more than a million people to flee their homes, according to the International Crisis Group (ICG) think tank.

By Rita Akana in Bamenda

Two soldiers have been injured and one Boko Haram fighter killed in clashes in Cameroon’s Far North region, army and local sources said on Friday.

The clashes took place overnight into Friday in the Kiliari locality of the region.

Heavily armed militants of the terror group attempted to attack the locality but were repulsed by troops who were patrolling the area, an army official who opted for anonymity said.

One of the militants was found dead early Friday after the clashes which lasted for hours, the official said.

Militants of the group have increased attacks mostly on civilians over the last two months, killing several, torching houses and looting property, according to security reports.

Source: Xinhuanet

Cameron has deployed hundreds of troops along its border with Nigeria after attacks by Boko Haram militants forced more than 40,000 villagers over the past two months to flee the area. Cameroon’s defense minister is visiting the border to assess the security situation and assure villagers that it is safe to return home.

Cameroon’s military reports that Boko Haram incursions in Mayo Tsanaga, an administrative unit on its northern border with Nigeria, have increased drastically since April.

Each day, armed members of the Nigerian terror group cross over to Cameroon, attack villages and steal cattle and food, the military reports.

Cameroon’s defense minister, Joseph Beti Assomo, said Thursday President Paul Biya asked him to lead a delegation of top military officials to the border. Assomo, whose delegation was in Mokollo district where Mayo Tsanaga is located, says several hundred troops have been deployed to protect civilians and their goods.

He said that self-protection groups must cooperate with the army.

Assomo says all militias must henceforth be registered and controlled by local government officials and Cameroon military. He says militia group members should be people of unquestionable integrity. Assomo says government troops and local officials note that militias have been infiltrated by Boko Haram terrorists and adds that the military will energetically fight terrorists and bring back civilians trapped along the border with Nigeria.

Ousman Aliou is from Duvan, a village on the border with Nigeria. He says except for a few elderly persons, almost everybody has escaped from Duvan. He spoke via a messaging app from Mokollo.

“Duvan has got 10,000 population and when I went there last week, I saw only 15 people in Duvan,” Aliou said. “So, I am asking Mr. Minister to do something for us please. Come and help us. Our people are sleeping on the mountain.”

In May, villagers along Cameroon’s northern border with Chad and Nigeria organized daily protests in front of government offices demanding the military protect them.

Vohod Deguime is mayor of the Mokollo district. He says if the military had responded more quickly to the villagers’ plea, civilians would have been spared from fleeing their homes.

He says the situation is getting worse as the days go by. He says several dozen villages have been destroyed over three weeks by Boko Haram, and food and cattle stolen. Deguime says more than 30,000 of the 40,000 Cameroonians who have escaped from their villages are hiding in bushes on the border with Nigeria.

Deguime said some of the fleeing villagers are finding refuge in host communities in safer border localities.

Local media reports that Cameroon recently withdrew some of its troops from the northern border with Nigeria and Chad and redeployed them to fight separatist rebels in the west of the country. Cameroon’s military dismiss the claims and say troops are always on standby to defend civilians when the need arises.

Source: VOA