Military forces arrested several hundred people in Cameroon’s North West and South West regions this week as they searched for those behind the killing of at least 13 civilians in the regions, including aid workers.

Public sentiment was inflamed when videos of beheaded women and civilians stabbed or shot to death were shared on social media.

The government blames separatist forces for the deaths, and the U.S. Embassy in Yaounde on Friday condemned what it called the horrific and senseless attacks by armed separatist fighters.

However, Prince Ekosso, president of the opposition United Socialist Democratic Party, says the arrests are an overreaction to the killings.

“The people of South West and North West cannot continue to suffer like this,” Ekosso said. “It is not supposed to be a collective arrest. It is supposed to be a systematic investigation so that they can find the culprits and bring them to book. You don’t go and punish innocent people for the crime of another person.”

Twenty-seven-year-old Prudence Egbe said the military raided several neighborhoods in Muyuka, a southwestern town, on Thursday. She said that after forcefully searching their family house and finding nothing that could implicate anyone, the military still left with her older brother, who drives a motorcycle, and accused him of aiding the separatists.  

“They tortured him,” Egbe said. “What he does is he carries people to the market and brings them back. Since they arrested him, we don’t even know what he is going through.”

 The government acknowledged that people were arrested in Muyuka, but did not give details. 

Earlier, separatist fighters in Muyuka had killed Bih Blanche Chi, a 35-year-old mother of four, for allegedly being an informant for government forces. In a video circulated on social media, the woman pleads her innocence before her throat is cut with a machete.

Bernard Okalia Bilai, governor of the English-speaking South West Region where Muyuka is located, denied the population is being brutalized. He said civilians are happy that the military is protecting them from barbaric fighters.

“The populations are reacting positively now,” Bilai said. “They are collaborating with the forces of law and order to denounce those who are disturbing in their territory.”

Similar mass arrests and torturing of civilians have been reported in towns in the North West region, where two teachers, a humanitarian worker and a 30-year-old woman were killed.

 Since 2016, separatists have fought to split the North West and South West regions, where the predominant language is English, from the rest of Cameroon and its French-speaking majority. 

The four-year conflict has killed more than 3,000 people and displaced 500,000 others, according to the United Nations. 

Source: VOA

“Fine play,” a pidgin English expression for “well done.” That’s what an alleged separatist fighter can be heard saying as the throat of a woman is cut with a machete.

A screenshot of the video showing Confort Tumassang being interrogated and threatened by armed separatists before her killing, August 11, 2020, Muyuka, South-West region, Cameroon 

  A screenshot of the video showing Confort Tumassang being interrogated and threatened by armed separatists before her killing, August 11, 2020, Muyuka, South-West region, Cameroon   ©

In a shocking video widely circulated on social media, three suspected separatist fighters in Muyuka, South-West region, beat and drag a 35-year-old woman, identified as Confort Tumassang by the government, over the ground with her hands tied behind her back on August 11. She begs for mercy before she is beheaded, her body left in the street. The mother-of-four is just the latest casualty in brutal attacks against civilians committed by separatist groups across the North-West and South-West regions of Cameroon – some of them similarly captured on video.

Human Rights Watch also reviewed a second video, filmed before the killing, showing separatists interrogating and threatening Tumassang, whom they accused of collaborating with the military.

The Minister of Communication issued a statement on August 13 condemning the murder and calling on security forces to ensure civilians’ protection.

The video, which corroborates previous accounts of killings by armed separatists documented by Human Rights Watch since late 2016, emerged as a new spike of violence affects civilians across the Anglophone regions.

“It flies in the face of humanity for us to accept these abuses as the new normal. There must be accountability,” the prominent human rights activist Felix Agbor Nkongho, also known as Agbor-Balla, told Human Rights Watch this week.

Yet when Human Rights Watch contacted the three main Anglophone separatist groups – the Ambazonia Governing Council, the Interim Government, led by Sisiku Julius Ayuk Tabe, and its splinter faction, led by Samuel Ikome Sako – for their reaction to the video, they condemned the killing but denied responsibility. Some blamed each other, while others accused government soldiers of disguising themselves as separatist fighters to commit atrocities – an accusation which the Minister of Communication dismissed.

Separatists continue to commit serious human rights abuses in the Anglophone regions with near-total impunity. Their leaders should immediately end the violence against civilians, and Cameroon’s international partners and the United Nations Security Council should impose targeted sanctions on separatist leaders responsible for these abuses.

Culled from Human Rights Watch

The United Nations has “strongly and unequivocally” condemned reported cases of “serious human rights violations and abuses” in Cameroon.

UN spokesperson, Stéphane Dujarric, stated the organisation’s position during his daily news briefing in New York on Friday.

“On Cameroon, we have seen recent reports of serious human rights violations and abuses in that country.

“These include a shocking video allegedly showing the brutal murder of a young woman in Muyuka in the South-West.

“We strongly and unequivocally condemn this atrocious act of violence.

“We call on the authorities to swiftly launch an investigation into these allegations and to ensure that those responsible are brought to justice,’’ Dujarric said.

The Northwest and Southwest regions of Cameroon have seen armed confrontations between security forces and Anglophone separatists, since 2017.

On Feb. 14, no fewer than 23 civilians, including 15 children and two pregnant women were massacred in the north-western village of Ngarbuh.

Three Cameroonian soldiers were arrested and charged with murder in connection to the incident, following an investigation ordered by President Paul Biya.

Dujarric reiterated the UN’s call on armed actors to refrain from attacks against civilians and to respect international humanitarian and human rights law.

He also urged all sides to join the Secretary-General’s call for a global ceasefire as the world fights the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We reiterate the readiness of the UN to work with all stakeholders towards a political solution to the crisis in the North-West and South-West of Cameroon through meaningful dialogue,’’ he added

Source: Naija247

The Vice President of the Southern Cameroons Interim Government Dabney Yerima says the Biya French Cameroun regime needs the pro Yaoundé armed militias popularly known as Atanga Nji Boys on Ground Zero to discredit Ambazonia Restoration Forces and the 87 year old French Cameroun dictator is using funds provided by the international community to combat the COVID-19 pandemic to support the genocidal campaign in the Federal Republic of Ambazonia.

“Biya and French Cameroun needs Atanga Nji Boys in our homeland to deceive international public opinion” Dabney Yerima said in a briefing on the state of the Southern Cameroons revolution in Den Hague.

The Atanga Nji Boys created and sponsored by the French Cameroun Minister of Territorial Administration with additional money from Amougou Belinga, owner of Vision 4 TV channel are now the most violent of the type ever known to Southern Cameroonians.

The last few weeks and days have put Southern Cameroons in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons.

Human life appears to be worthless to both separatist fighters and the Atanga Nji Boys backed by government troops which have been running amok in the region and in the process, leaving a trail of death and destruction.

Over the last week, several people have been beheaded and many others kidnapped in Southern Cameroons, causing the international community to call out separatist fighters who are giving well-intentioned rebellion a very bad name.

Government troops are also putting themselves in the firing line by committing atrocities that have made them the people’s enemies instead of allies as criminal elements, some sponsored by the country’s territorial administration minister, Paul Atanga Nji,  make hay of the ongoing fighting in Southern Cameroons to enrich themselves and stifle a rebellion that started some four years ago when the country’s English-speaking minority accused the Yaoundé government of decades of injustice and marginalization.

The flaring violence is mostly targeting innocent civilians, most of whom are young girls who simply want to live a normal life.

By Oke Akombi Ayukepi Akap in Glasgow and Soter Agbaw-Ebai in Dusseldorf

The last few weeks and days have put Southern Cameroons in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons.

Human life appears to be worthless to both separatist fighters and government troops which have been running amok in the region and in the process, leaving a trail of death and destruction.

Over the last week, several people have been beheaded and many others kidnapped in the two English-speaking regions of the country, causing the international community to call out separatist fighters who are giving well-intentioned rebellion a very bad name.

Government troops are also putting themselves in the firing line by committing atrocities that have made them the people’s enemies instead of allies as criminal elements, some sponsored by the country’s territorial administration minister, Paul Atanga Nji,  make hay of the ongoing fighting in the two regions to enrich themselves and stifle a rebellion that started some four years ago when the country’s English-speaking minority accused the Yaoundé government of decades of injustice and marginalization.

The flaring violence is mostly targeting innocent civilians, most of whom are young girls who simply want to live a normal life.

A few days ago, a young girl was killed in the country’s northwest region shortly after a video of her dancing in a drinking spot with some young boys. She was accused of dating government soldiers and betraying the revolution.

Two days ago, a young beautiful lady was slaughtered by supposedly separatist fighters in the town of Muyuka in the country’s southwest region.

The gruesome pictures have triggered a wave of condemnation across the globe, with the US embassy in Yaoundé and an American law-maker calling for the suspects to be brought to justice and a speedy search for a resolution to the issues that triggered the fighting.

The country’s military has been dispatched to Muyuka to protect the population, but in less than a day, it has killed seven civilians, prompting many people to question if the army is better than the lawless criminals and separatist fighters who have been intimidating the local population.

The country’s law enforcement community has hastily presented some three young men as the killers of the young lady in Muyuka, causing many people to openly call out the country’s  police which is the most corrupt and most inefficient on the continent.

If the culprits have been arrested, why has the military been killing innocent civilians in Muyuka even after the arrests?

How could an inefficient police force just arrest the killers of the young lady in less than a day when the entire world knows that separatist fighters live in the jungles and not in town?

The corrupt police is also known for its brutality and many Cameroonians hold that those arrested will be compelled to confess just to give the corrupt Yaoundé regime a good name around the world.

 The senseless killings speak to the breakdown of law and order in the English-speaking regions and the inability of the government to engineer peace.

The slaughtering in the two English-speaking regions which affects mostly women and children has been on the rise ever since the country’s ailing and senile President, Paul Biya, declared war on the people of Southern Cameroons.

Most of the civilian casualties that have recently occurred in Fako and Mezam Divisions are attributed to armed Southern Cameroonian groups and Yaoundé-sponsored militia battling Ambazonian Restoration Forces.

Towns such as Ekok, Muyuka, Wum, Bamenda, Ndop and Kumbo have witnessed the worst forms of brutality and the killings are now spreading to other towns in Manyu and Kupe Muanenguba Divisions, while Batibo and Widikum in the northwest regions have become open air abattoirs.

Cameroon Concord News Group recorded 62 deaths throughout Southern Cameroons in the month of July and 59 were innocent civilians.

When Cameroon government forces used machine guns in populated areas in Jakiri and Batibo, 99% of those killed were civilians and not people involved in the fighting.

The international community has to step up its pressure on the corrupt Yaoundé government and the separatists if the violence and senseless killings have to come to an end.

The solutions to the country’s problems could be found at the negotiating table, but both parties have been reluctant to heed calls for peace talks.

The Yaoundé government has, in particular, been dragging its feet, hoping that time will address its problems; an approach that has not delivered any positive results over the last four years.

The world should not continue to turn a blind eye to these atrocities committed by both parties. The Yaoundé government must be pressured into embracing talks and it must acknowledge that time for change has come.

There is no way things will continue as usual. The country’s economy is on its knees and the military is very unlikely to score a clear victory over Southern Cameroonian fighters who are more determined to elbow the Yaoundé government out of the region.

After four years of senseless fighting, tricks and killings, it is time for both parties to work towards ending the streams of blood that have been flowing in Southern Cameroons.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

A large blast in Yaoundé precisely at the Mokolo district has injured scores of people.

Videos show the destruction in a drinking spot in Marché Mokolo following the blast.

Officials are blaming Southern Cameroons Self Defense Forces fighting for the independence of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia.

An investigation is under way to find the exact trigger for the explosion. A spokesperson for the Delegate General for National Security has been quoted as saying that those responsible would face the maximum punishment.

A Cameroon Concord News journalist at the scene reported severe damage, enough to put the Biya Francophone regime on the alert.

By Rita Akana