The Special Criminal Court will order the arrest of several Cameroon government authorities in the coming days as the 88-year-old President Biya vowed that those responsible for dubious award of contracts in the buildup to the Africa Cup of Nations and the Covid-19 pandemic will pay a heavy price.

The corruption came amid a period of political turmoil in Southern Cameroons that critics blame on Biya’s increasingly authoritarian rule and the fight against the Nigerian Islamic terror group Boko Haram. Staying in power by rigging every election, Biya has shaken up his government, arrested several prominent figures, cracked down on dissidents, restricted the news media and renewed fighting with Boko Haram and Ambazonia Restoration Forces.

The Yaoundé regime has also come under pressure from the thousands of refugees in the Far North region who have fled violence in Northern Nigeria, and a series of bloody attacks between the Arab shoa and Kotoko ethnic groups.

A source at the office of the presidency, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with CPDM rules said, the Special Criminal Court will also target the leadership of the Cameroon Development Cooperation (CDC) in Southern Cameroons.

Our chief Yaoundé informant has described the upcoming anti corruption operation as massive and said those found guilty will receive every punishment they deserve. The government will also be pressing ahead with a purge of judicial and police officials.

By Rita Akana in Yaoundé

The Southern Cameroons Interim Government (IG) has denounced the recent French Cameroun military deployment to Southern Cameroons, calling on the Yaoundé regime to withdraw its forces from the Federal Republic of Ambazonia before it gets too late.

Vice President Dabney Yerima, in a statement released on Monday, demanded that the French Cameroun regime stop repeated violations of Southern Cameroons sovereignty and deadly raids on ordinary Ambazonian citizens and fully withdraw Francophone army soldiers from Southern Cameroons soil.

The exiled Southern Cameroons leader stated that Ambazonian patience has reached its limit and the continued massacre of innocent Southern Cameroons lives and violations of Southern Cameroons sovereignty were the last straw.

“Ambazonia fighters, which dispelled the myth about La Republique du Cameroun’s military and is subjecting them to humiliation has recommended that Yaoundé should pull out its troops before it is too late,” Yerima warned.

Late on Sunday, the Southern Cameroons Department of Foreign Affairs said Ambazonia fighters will give an adequate response to the latest French Cameroun military aggression in Mezam County.

Cameroon Concord News understands the situation in Southern Cameroons has exacerbated and ordinary Anglophone citizens are now being targeted under flimsy claims and pretexts by the Francophone dominated Cameroon government army.

By Isong Asu

The Committee to Protect Journalists on Thursday, February 3, joined 26 other civil society organizations in calling on President Paul Biya to release all those arbitrarily detained in Cameroon for acts of free expression, including at least four journalists.

The open letter, published during the Africa Cup of Nations in Cameroon, notes that the continent’s premier football tournament masks the reality that over 100 people have been detained, most for more than a year, and some for over five years, for simply “peacefully exercising their human rights.”

Journalists Thomas Awah Junior, Mancho Bibixy, Tsi Conrad, and Kingsley Fomunyuy Njoka are detained on anti-state charges in Yaounde’s overcrowded Kondengui Central Prison, as documented in CPJ’s annual census of jailed journalists around the world.

The organizations also urged Biya to reform the laws currently used to criminalize protest and public assembly, including the country’s controversial anti-terror law that is used to silence critics and suppress dissent, as documented in a 2017 special report by CPJ.

Cameroonian soldiers killed at least eight people and burned down dozens of homes and shops during three separate military operations in the North-West English-speaking region in December 2021, Human Rights Watch said today. The dead included three children, two women, and an older man.

“Cameroon’s security forces have again shown disregard for human life during their recent operations in the North-West region,” said Ilaria Allegrozzi, senior Africa researcher at Human Rights Watch. “The killings of civilians, including children, are serious crimes that should be credibly and independently investigated, and those responsible held to account.”

On December 8, 2021, in response to an attack on a military convoy by armed separatist fighters, soldiers killed two teenage boys, ages 16 and 17, and a 70-year-old man, and burned at least 35 private homes and shops along Mbengwi Road in Bamenda, the capital city of the North-West region.

On December 10, soldiers from the elite Rapid Intervention Battalion (Battaillon d’intervention rapide, BIR) searched door-to-door in Chomba village, about 10 kilometers from Bamenda in a separatist-held area. The soldiers gathered about 80 residents in the village square, accused them of harboring separatist fighters, and threatened them with death. The soldiers forcibly disappeared four villagers, two of them women, during the raid. They were found dead on December 29, with apparent gunshot wounds to their heads.

On December 22, soldiers shot and killed a 3-year-old girl and injured a 17-year-old girl in Bamenda’s Ngomgham neighborhood, following an alleged attack earlier that day by armed separatist fighters.

Between December 19 and January 12, 2022, Human Rights Watch interviewed by telephone 19 people, including seven witnesses to the arson attack on Mbengwi Road, who also lost their property; four witnesses to the military operation in Chomba, and two medical workers at Bamenda’s regional hospital where the bodies of the two teenage boys were deposited and where the 70-year-old man was treated and died. Human Rights Watch also interviewed two relatives of the girl killed and the 17-year-old girl injured in Ngomgham neighborhood, a local journalist who investigated that attack, and three residents of the North-West region with knowledge of the three incidents.

Human Rights Watch also reviewed satellite imagery showing over 35 buildings affected by fire along Mbengwi Road and 19 videos shared directly with Human Rights Watch researchers and posted on social media platforms indicating extensive destruction of property there. Human Rights Watch reviewed hospital bills and two photographs of the 17-year-old girl and a video showing the bodies of the four people found in Chomba and three photographs of their burial.

On January 21, Human Rights Watch shared its findings with the army spokesperson, Col. Cyrille Serge Atonfack Guemo, requesting responses to specific questions. Guemo did not reply.

In a news release on December 10, the Cameroonian Ministry of Defence claimed that separatist fighters ambushed a BIR unit with an improvised explosive device on December 8 in Bamenda’s Nitop neighborhood and that a confrontation between the soldiers and the separatists ensued. The spokesperson for the ministry denied that security forces torched any homes or shops, claiming instead that a separatist warehouse storing “components used in making improvised explosive devices” exploded “during the gun battle,” causing “a shock wave on a few nearby houses.” He also said that an investigation had been opened into “the unfortunate incident.”

Human Rights Watch analysis of satellite imagery recorded before and after the reported arson attack indicates that at least 35 structures were damaged by fire, some of which appear to have been completely reduced to ash while others appear to have burn scars on their roofs. The burned structures are along both sides of Mbengwi Road, showing distinct damaged areas. This pattern suggests that distinct fires were set in individual structures and that the damage was not the result of the expansion of a larger fire or explosion as the Ministry of Defence claimed. Human Rights Watch also believes its analysis of the damage is most likely an underestimate as the satellite imagery does not show internal damage to buildings.

“I lost my entire house, and I am now homeless,” a 55-year-old trader who lived on Mbengwi Road told Human Rights Watch. “I saw up to 30 soldiers, including from the BIR. They were shooting and burning. In my home, everything was burned: all the kitchen stuff, books, mattresses, chairs, tables, clothes, bed sheets, blankets. They burned room by room.”

National and international media outlets as well as Cameroonian and international human rights organizations reported the arson attack on Mbengwi Road. In a December 10 joint report, the Centre for Human Rights and Democracy in Africa, a Cameroonian rights group, and the Database of Atrocities, a research project led by volunteers and researchers from several international universities, documented the widespread burning of buildings along Mbengwi Road on December 8 by government forces. This report referenced several videos shared on social media showing burning buildings, the locations of which were identified and shared online by researcher Israel Ayongwa. The report also stated that a witness “saw the corpses of two boys at a burned metal workshop.”

The incidents in December follow previous spates of violence and human rights violations by government forces during the crisis in the Anglophone regions, most of which have gone unpunished. Human Rights Watch has documented extensive burning of villages by members of the security forces between 2017 and 2021 in both the North-West and South-West English-speaking regions, as well as killings and mistreatment of civilians. Armed separatist groups have also committed abuses, including killings, kidnappings, and widespread attacks on education.

On December 5, the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights issued a resolution expressing “concern about the deteriorating human rights situation” in Cameroon and calling on the government to “authorize a fact-finding mission into the country, to enable the Commission [to] ascertain the violations alleged.”

“The Cameroonian government’s failure to hold its security forces to account for past abuses has only encouraged soldiers to commit further heinous crimes,” Allegrozzi said. “To stop this impunity and help pave the way for justice, the government should facilitate full access and cooperation to allow independent experts from the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights to investigate the alleged crimes.”

For more details on recent abuses and accounts from victims and witnesses, please see below.

Military Attack Along Bamenda’s Mbengwi Road (December 8, 2021)

Killings

During the attack, soldiers killed three people, including two teenage boys, ages 16 and 17, who were working as apprentices in a welder workshop, and an older man who lived on Mbengwi Road. . Human Rights Watch did not interview any witnesses to the killings but spoke with five people who saw their bodies and with two medical sources at the Bamenda regional hospital who confirmed that the boys’ bodies were taken to the hospital’s mortuary and that a 70-year-old man was treated and died there on December 10.

A 45-year-old truck driver who rescued the older man and took him to the hospital said:

The soldiers burned my home and shot my tenant, a 70-year-old man. He didn’t die on the spot. I found him outside my home, bleeding. He had been shot in the right leg. I took him to the regional hospital; he died two days later. He could not escape because of his age. He was too old and weak and could not.

Human Rights Watch reviewed two videos sent directly to its researchers and posted to social media platforms, whose authenticity was confirmed by the truck driver and another resident of Mbengwi road, showing the 70-year-old man on the ground after he was shot. In the video, the man’s right trouser leg is cut open with his injured leg exposed, consistent with injuries witnesses described.

A 44-year-old man whose home was burned during the attack said he saw the bodies of the two children. “They were apprentices at the welder workshop in front of my home,” he said. “Their bodies were partially burned. So, it was difficult to determine where they had been shot. The bodies were taken to the mortuary of the Bamenda regional hospital.”

Burning of Property

A 34-year-old woman, whose home and food shop were burned by soldiers, said:

I was in my shop when the soldiers started coming at around 4 p.m. I heard shooting. I saw more than 20 soldiers on foot. They were shooting at random and burning everything along their way. I decided to escape. I ran as fast as I could and hid in a nearby home. I was worried because my two children, 7 and 5 years old, were at home. Then, I sought shelter at my aunt’s home.

The following day, when I went back to Mbengwi road, I found that my shop had been completely burned and my home partially burned. I managed to reunite with my children, and they told me that the military set the room on fire while they were still inside. Neighbors rescued them. I can’t believe my children could have been burned alive.

The Human Rights Watch analysis of lower resolution satellite images is consistent with witness accounts regarding the date and time of the fires. A satellite image recorded on December 8, 2021, at 10:39 a.m. (local time) shows no signs of damage, but 24 hours later, multiple buildings were affected by fire.

A woman whose nail salon was burned during the attack said:

The military came and burned my shop down. It was my only source of income. I was in the shop with my 5-year-old child when the soldiers came and set it on fire. One of them said: ‘Shoot them!’ But another said: ‘Let them go.’ So, we ran. And then they burned the shop. My child has been traumatized since. I lost everything I had – about 1 million CFA [US$1,725].

A 45-year-old man whose home and shop were burned said:

My four-room house, with everything inside, and my shop, where I used to sell food and drinks, are gone. The military burned them. I was outside my home when they [the soldiers] came. My wife and eight children were inside the house. The soldiers came on foot and shot around randomly, setting buildings along the road on fire. I had to run away with my family. I lost all I had. I estimate my losses at 15 million CFA [US$25,880]. We now live with a relative.

Beatings

Soldiers also beat the truck driver, he said:

When a friend called me to inform me that my home was on fire, I rushed there, but I was stopped by soldiers along the way. I could see smoke and flames coming from my house. The soldiers dragged me by the roadside, ordered me to lay on the ground, and then they beat me and kicked me. They wanted to know who planted the bomb [which was used to ambush soldiers]. They said I should tell them where the amba [separatist fighters] were hiding.

Military Operation in Chomba Village (December 10, 2021)

According to four witnesses, at least 50 BIR soldiers cordoned off Chomba village as early as 7 a.m. on December 10. They searched door-to-door, stealing items and money from villagers and forcing some of them out of their homes. They gathered at least 80 villagers, including women and children, at the village square and kept them there until at least 4 p.m. They issued death threats, beat some people, and burned a home.

A pastor who was among those assembled at the village square said:

Five BIR soldiers broke into my home. They searched all the rooms, including the toilets and the kitchen. They said they were looking for ‘Amba boys’ [separatist fighters]. I was ordered to join other villagers that they had removed from their homes and were gathered at the village square. Some soldiers were guarding us there; others were entering every compound, breaking doors, taking away valuables and money. They set fire to one of the houses where they claimed they had found a gun. At the village square, they threatened to kill all of us. One soldier told me to lie prostrate on the ground, the reason being that I was carefully observing his moves.

A 57-year-old businessman said:

I was driving with my wife, my two children, and another passenger when BIR soldiers stopped my car, ordered us to get out, told me to drive back to Chomba and forced my family to walk back. They took us to the village square, where they had assembled about 80 people, including women and children. We sat there under the sun until the military left. They threatened to kill us; they accused us of being amba [separatist fighters]. They beat some people in front of me on their heads. At one point, they ordered us to face the wall of a house. Everybody turned towards the wall crying. People thought they would be executed.

Witnesses said that armed separatists operate in Chomba and the surrounding areas. Capo Daniel, the deputy chief of staff of the Ambazonia Defense Forces (ADF), a major separatist group, described Chomba to Human Rights Watch as “an ADF stronghold.” All witnesses confirmed, however, that there was no confrontation between the security forces and the separatists on December 10, and that the separatists fled when security forces arrived: “There was no clash between the soldiers and the amba [separatist fighters],” the 57-year-old businessman said. “Amba pass by Chomba, but this doesn’t make us, the villagers, amba. But that’s what the military say. They punished us.”

Enforced Disappearances and Killings

Witnesses said that, at the end of the military operation, on the evening of December 10, they noticed that four villagers – a man with his wife, another woman, and another man – were unaccounted for. They said the entire community looked for the four people, including in police and gendarmerie stations in the nearby city of Bamenda, without finding them.

A lawyer said that he went to a gendarmerie post in Bamenda on December 14 to inquire about them: “The gendarme officer told me they were not in their cells.” The same lawyer said that one of his colleagues, also a lawyer, filed a complaint to the North-West region’s attorney general, requesting information about two of the disappeared people, and that the complaint was transferred to the gendarmerie for investigation. Human Rights Watch has not been able to see a copy of the complaint.

If a person is deprived of their liberty by state agents, and their detention is not acknowledged or details of their whereabouts or fate are concealed, this constitutes an enforced disappearance, strictly prohibited under international law. Governments are obligated to investigate any allegation of enforced disappearance and punish those responsible appropriately.

A 61-year-old man and a relative of three of the disappeared people said that during the military operation in Chomba, he saw soldiers entering the home where the forcibly disappeared people were allegedly taken from, and that he later heard gunshots: “I saw the BIR approaching the house. They asked me: ‘What are you doing here?’ I replied that I was the neighbor. They said I should immediately go back home and lock my door. Which I did. Then, I heard gunshots.”

A 46-year-old driver and relative of three of the victims said that the 7-year-old child of one of the couples came to his home in the evening of December 10, saying that soldiers had taken away his parents.

Witnesses said that a Chomba resident found the bodies on December 29 in an abandoned home in Chomba in an advanced state of decomposition and with signs of gunshot wounds to their heads. He alerted the community. Human Rights Watch reviewed a video sent directly to its researchers and posted online, whose authenticity was confirmed by the four witnesses, showing the bodies when they were discovered, as well as three photographs showing their burial.

“I went there and brought plastic bags to wrap the bodies,” the 46-year-old driver said. “I identified the people killed and noticed they had also been shot in the heads. With the help of others, I buried them in Chomba.”

Attack in Bamenda’s Ngomgham Neighborhood (December 22, 2021)

On December 22, between 10:30 and 11 a.m., soldiers on patrol at Cowboy junction, in Bamenda’s Ngomgham neighborhood, shot two children, killing the 3-year-old girl and injuring the 17-year-old girl.

A relative of the victims, who spoke with the injured survivor, said that the girls were passengers on a motorbike when the military shot them: “They shot the 3-year-old girl in the ribs, and she died on the spot; the elder one was shot in the left arm. The motorbike driver ran off.”

Two relatives said the 17-year-old girl was taken to Bamenda’s St. Mary hospital after the shooting, where she underwent surgery to remove the bullet from her left arm. Human Rights Watch reviewed two photographs showing her on a hospital bed with her arm wrapped bandages, as well as the bills sent by the hospital to the girl’s family. The girl was discharged on December 31, a relative said.

The 3-year-old girl was buried on December 24 in Menka village, North-West region. Local media and the UK high commissioner in Cameroon reported that a second girl was killed on December 22, also in Ngomgham neighborhood, but Human Rights Watch was unable to verify the information.

Culled from Human Rights Watch

The people of Manyu and Ndian must be vigilant. Their wealth is disappearing right before their own eyes.

Due to the war and the focus on football, there is a lot of illegal logging taking place in the Manyu and Ndian forests.

There are reports that Nigerians and Chinese gangs are working together to rob the people of the Southwest of their prized wood.

 Traditional chiefs are being brought into the corrupt deals and many are willing to play ball.

Our chief correspondent in Mundemba reported that even government officials are jumping into the lucrative deals. Chinese and Nigerian gangs are collaborating with corrupt government officials to rob the people of their wealth.

The current Ambazonian war is making it easy for these gangs to cart away wood from these frontier divisions into Nigeria and the provenance of the wood is changed once the wood gets into Nigeria. The wood is destined for China.

Chinese are working with Nigerians and some Southern Cameroonian groups. These criminal gangs are robbing the population  of its wealth.

Cameroon Concord News Group is investigating and will be providing more details in the days ahead.

The head of an elite Cameroon government army soldier serving with the 51 Infantry Batallion in the West region was cut off with a spade after out of ammunition Ambazonia fighters on Tuesday raided Government High School Bameyam in the Bamboutous District bordering the North West.

After killing the Cameroon government soldier, the Amba fighters used the enemy’s gun to injure two other troops.

The Ministry of Defense confirmed the brutal incident and added that the attack occurred deep inside Galim.

The soldier was ambushed by Amba fighters who took refuge in a farm behind the school building.

Sources at the defense headquarters in Yaounde say during the ambush, the Ambazonia fighters taunted the soldier, telling him they would send his head back to his wife.

Two other Cameroon government soldiers who reportedly radioed for help were seriously injured.

By Fon Lawrence

The Vice President of the Ambazonia Interim Government Dabney Yerima says genuine Southern Cameroons front line leaders need to put in place solid structures for the Ambazonia resistance in the interest of the people of Ambazonia.

The exiled Ambazonia leader made the comments in Den Hague during an evaluation meeting on the plight of Southern Cameroons refugees, stressing that the British Southern Cameroons society is in need of changing its approach and thinking.

Dabney Yerima said such a new resistance approach and thinking should be based on Southern Cameroons political, economic and social interests and not those being dished out from Yaounde.

Yerima also revealed that the Interim Government is working to establish a mutual understanding and close visions among all Ambazonia groups in Ground Zero and issues of mutual concern are being dealt with.

Yerima further praised the balanced role of the Southern Cameroons diaspora and support for the liberation struggle and hailed all Amba fighters as crucial players in the war to free the Federal Republic of Ambazonia, saying soon and very soon, the distractions coming from the US will disappear and Southern Cameroonians will be facing the challenges that surround them.

By Chi Prudence Asong

The Federal Republic of Ambazonia has reiterated its right to freedom and complete independence from La Republique du Cameroun through all possible means guaranteed by international law, emphasizing that all measures taken by the occupying Yaounde regime to change the legal status of Southern Cameroons-Ambazonia are null and void and have no legal effect.

Speaking on Wednesday on the state of the Southern Cameroons revolution, the Vice President of the Southern Cameroons Interim Government, Dabney Yerima lambasted the colonial activities and other marginalization practices in Southern Cameroons by the French Cameroun regime.

Yerima added that it is highly deplorable that some so-called Southern Cameroons front line leaders are overlooking repeated French Cameroun acts of aggression on Ambazonia territory– the latest of which took place Bamenda when Francophone soldiers killed a prominent Senator.

Dabney Yerima pointed out that the Ambazonia Interim Government has sent several letters to key Southern Cameroonians in the USA and other relevant Southern Cameroons prominent figures in the diaspora to inform them of developments in Ground Zero and Ground One and the urgent need for a united and well-coordinated front against the French Cameroun occupation. The Vice President of the Southern Cameroons Interim Government noted that he was a loss to see the distraction coming out of the US.

The exiled Southern Cameroons leader stressed that the Ambazonia Interim Government strongly condemns flagrant violations being committed by the French Cameroun regime in the Federal Republic of Ambazonia.

Yerima reiterated Southern Cameroons inalienable right to complete and total independence from La Republique du Cameroun through all possible means, which are guaranteed by international law and not subject to some kind of Grand National Dialogue or prescription from an 88-year old dictator.

By Toto Roland Motuba

British diplomats believe Cameroon, a country with 27 million inhabitants, is run by just five men and that there is “extensive corruption”.

At the top is President Biya, who has ruled the Central African state with an iron fist for nearly 40 years. Now in his late 80s, he governs mostly from a luxury hotel in Switzerland.

But Britain supports his regime and conducted six secret counter-terrorism operations in Cameroon last year, it can be revealed.

They have code names like Cylix, Bacchus and Abbadide.

Most of the operations involved training and “capacity building” for troops tackling the Boko Haram and Islamic State groups.

This included UK activity at a barracks in Cameroon’s far north, Salak, where Amnesty International says terrorism suspects were tortured.

Britain is building training villages in Salak for elite Cameroon units, documents obtained by Declassified show.

Those forces are also accused of severe human rights abuses against an English-speaking “Ambazonian” movement.

In response to fresh demands for autonomy from the Francophone central government in 2017, Amnesty says more than 20 peaceful protesters were shot and over 500 arbitrarily detained.

Our revelations of British support for Biya’s regime come as Amnesty launched a campaign on Monday to free political prisoners in Cameroon.

Fabien Offner, a researcher for the group, said: “Over the past five years, the human rights situation has grown increasingly bleak as people from Anglophone regions, including journalists, human rights defenders, activists and supporters of political opposition, have been arrested and jailed for expressing their opinions or peacefully protesting.”

The UK government is aware of such abuses. British officials have privately noted President Biya’s “frequent detention of opposition activists and unjustifiably broad use of the anti-terrorism law”.

But Whitehall is offering considerable support to Biya’s regime. One recent UK operation, codenamed ODYSSEAN, saw a British special forces officer draft a “crisis management” doctrine for Cameroon’s president.

In return for this and other services, Biya awarded the officer — lieutenant colonel “Sid” Purser — the equivalent of an MBE.

Alongside the military support, Britain signed a £200-million trade deal with Cameroon last year. A British foreign minister met President Biya in March 2021 to discuss “investment opportunities”, which include a Guinness factory.

Ngoh Ngoh and Eko Eko

Lt Col Purser — a Falklands war veteran and marine commando — is stationed in Cameroon as Britain’s “senior military adviser”.

There, he has cultivated “influential relationships” with Biya’s “right-hand man”, Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh, and Cameroon’s spy chief Leopold Maxine Eko Eko. Cameroon’s prime minister and defence minister appear to be the other most influential people.

Ngoh Ngoh came to Britain in May 2018 to visit the UK intelligence community.

Eko Eko runs the country’s fearsome intelligence agency, the Directorate General Research External (DGRE). British diplomats described him as a “dove” and said his spies “previously had a bad compliance reputation” until he took over in 2010.

However, Amnesty International has published allegations of torture throughout Eko Eko’s leadership of the DGRE. Former detainees say senior DGRE officers got away with torture from 2013-17.

Despite Amnesty’s detailed report, UK defence minister James Heappey met Eko Eko at a dinner hosted by the British ambassador while visiting Cameroon last spring. The British minister was briefed to “reinforce the view that protecting the civilian population is paramount”.

He was also advised to “praise” Eko Eko for his counter-extremism efforts and “thank” him for letting British troops conduct “capacity building” of the DGRE at Salak, which is “close to the area of operations”. The spy chief deployed 32 of his men at the notorious torture site to coincide with the UK training.

Ministerial visit

Ministry of Defence (MOD) briefing papers for Heappey’s visit have been obtained by Declassified. They expose the scale of Britain’s covert military role in the African police-state — where France is traditionally seen as the more dominant European power.

The documents show how British diplomats overlook Biya’s “shortcomings on human rights and democracy”, partly because he voted with the UK to condemn the use of chemical weapons by Russia and Syria.

The UK saw Cameroon as a “priority lobbying country” at the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.

“President Biya is instinctively a supporter of the rules-based international order,” the then UK High Commissioner Rowan Laxton insisted.

A few months later, more than 500 activists from the opposition party, the Movement for the Renaissance of Cameroon, were reportedly rounded up.

The crackdown earned Biya criticism from 14 UN human rights experts, who were “extremely worried about mass arrests of peaceful protesters and political activists who express dissent”. More than 100 activists from this group remain in detention, Amnesty said on Monday.

Rapid Intervention Battalion

As well as supporting Cameroon’s intelligence agency, Britain works with the regime’s special forces. “The main focus of UK capacity building in Cameroon” is on the Bataillon d’Intervention Rapide (BIR), or Rapid Intervention Battalion, the documents show.

This is a well-armed elite force of 10,000 men. They are accused of torture, executing women and children and burning down a village. French, US and Israeli support for the BIR is well known, whereas Britain’s role has remained largely hidden.

Minister Heappey was photographed on Twitter with the BIR during his visit to Cameroon last year. The MOD’s tweet said British troops were “working alongside Cameroon’s BIR force to counter the twin threats of Islamic State and Boko Haram in the Lake Chad Basin”.

His briefing notes reveal much more about the extent of this deployment. They show Heappey met Colonel Ndongo, the BIR Commander of what the Biya regime calls Operation Alpha — its mission against Boko Haram.

Heappey was told to congratulate the colonel on his “successful” work against the terror group and ask what more the UK could do. The British minister then observed UK troops providing capacity building in Salak, where detainees have allegedly been tortured.

A British army short-term training team was deployed to Salak from January 2021. There they conducted “train and advise activity with BIR and DGRE” until around mid-April 2021.

By that stage, Whitehall was considering “whether the capacity building should evolve to include assist, enable or accompany functions”. It is not clear if this development went ahead.

A UK Brigadier General who visited Cameroon during the deployment “noted the professionalism” of the BIR and DGRE but worried their successes were “generally short-lived”.

Britain’s former ambassador believed Cameroon security forces “have performed admirably”.

Carriage of weapons

UK interest in Cameroon grew after neighbouring Nigeria snubbed some MOD offers to help counter Boko Haram. The militant group has kidnapped school girls and terrorises the Lake Chad region.

France asked the UK to “do more” to counter the Islamic extremist group in 2016. The then prime minister Theresa May agreed.

Purser’s military post in Cameroon was established and he focused “on delivering effect in North East Nigeria from the ‘outside-in’ ”.

He had spent the previous five years leading counter-terrorism efforts by UK special forces across north west Africa.

His more recent work in Cameroon has relied on troops from 1 Scots Specialised Infantry Group.

These soldiers are now part of the army’s special operations brigade, a new “ranger battalion” that is expected to fight alongside allies in counter-insurgency situations.

This concept has already been trialled in Cameroon, where an “exchange of notes… provides for UK jurisdiction and carriage of weapons in the far north”.

It also sets out Britain’s human rights concerns and “what our response would be to any infraction”. The files say “this is closely monitored”.

The risk is so high that UK training “has been designed to be delivered directly to force elements that are already deployed or will deploy shortly” on operations to counter Boko Haram or Islamic State in northern Cameroon.

This is “intended to minimise the risk of UK trained units being diverted to other theatres”, a reference to parts of the country where English-speakers are struggling for independence.

Training includes “mountain manoeuvres” and “targeted use of intelligence (to reduce collateral damage)”. The MOD claims the training has made Cameroon’s state security forces “highly effective”. The Red Cross provides sessions on the law of war as part of the training.

Private security companies

Air support for ground troops appears to be an issue. All three of Cameroon’s C130 military transport planes were grounded in March 2021.

Marshall Aerospace, a British firm, signed a contract in 2019 to maintain the aircraft but it is awaiting payment from Cameroon’s state oil company.

Heappey was instructed to ask Biya’s right-hand man, Ngoh Ngoh, to “unlock the bureaucracy” and let the payment go through.

Another British business, the Westminster-based Torchlight Group, has provided intelligence analyst training to “all force elements engaged in the far north” of Cameroon.

It helped “provide interoperability between all agencies” such as DGRE and the BIR over the last three years. Torchlight did not respond to a request for comment.

Ambazonia

The papers provide a rare insight into the Foreign Office’s view of the Ambazonia conflict. The region was once a British colony called the Southern Cameroons. During independence negotiations in 1961, local people voted to join the larger, French-speaking part of Cameroon.

A federal system that was meant to preserve some autonomy gradually broke down, and this marginalisation fuelled Ambazonian separatist sentiment.

The documents show British diplomats noting that “widespread human rights abuses continue to occur at the hands of both separatists and state security forces” in Ambazonia.

Whitehall believes: “There is no chance of — and little popular support for — independence… But the conflict will continue to simmer unless and until the Government addresses the reasonable demands of the moderate majority.”

These “moderate” demands are seen as greater autonomy, financial support, protection of civilians and respect for the use of English.

UK officials think President Biya had “a long period of denial” on the Anglophone crisis and that his defence minister, Joseph Beti Assomo, believes it can be “ended through military action alone”.

At Heappey’s meeting with Ngoh Ngoh, who is also Biya’s likely successor, he was told to point out: “There still appears to be too many allegations relating to the Anglophone crisis, notwithstanding the possibility of disinformation [fake news], all credible allegations must be investigated.”

An initial “dialogue plan” for the crisis was “developed in coordination with Sir Jeffrey Donaldson”, a right-wing MP in Northern Ireland.

Donaldson walked out on the Good Friday Agreement peace talks but has styled himself as an international conflict negotiation expert. He is now UK trade envoy to Cameroon.

Heappey was advised to tell Cameroon’s spy chief, Eko Eko, that “military operations must be intelligence-led and precise and that dialogue is essential to achieving a peaceful solution to the conflict”.

He was to “highlight our own examples/lessons from Northern Ireland where the UK did not always get it right”, such as internment — the mass detention of terrorist suspects without trial.

An MOD spokesperson told Declassified: “The UK is committed to working with regional allies in Central and West Africa to tackle violence in the Lake Chad Basin.

“Cameroon is an important partner in this effort and we are exploring what further support we can provide to tackle shared security challenges and further contain the spread of violent extremism in the region.”

The Cameroonian authorities did not respond to a request for comment.

Culled from Daily Maverick