4, July 2018
War in Ambazonia: There are no longer any words to describe Southern Cameroons’s horror 0
The senseless war in Southern Cameroons has exhausted all superlatives. Worst day, worst month, worst year, worst ever. To be sure, words can no longer describe the killings currently going on in Southern Cameroons. For the past few days, Cameroon government army soldiers have fired rockets and artillery in many areas in the Northern and Southern Zone.
Over the weekend alone, the French Cameroun government army killed more than 87 residents, including women and children in villages around the Muyuka and Muea districts according to a variety of groups contacted by Cameroon Concord News Group. The two year crisis death toll has now exceeded a thousand.
The state-run Cameroon Radio and Television reported on Monday that separatist’s fire from within the Fako County had killed civilians. However, what we do know is that Cameroon government troops have been responding to attacks from the Ambazonia Restoration Forces with strikes destroying homes and burning down villages.
The desperate situation and the near-total absence of any sign that further violence can be avoided have pushed many Southern Cameroonians to flee to neighboring Nigeria and some to French Cameroun. A Roman Catholic clergy who spoke to our correspondent in Buea wondered aloud if those inflicting the suffering on Southern Cameroons women and children still have words to justify their barbaric acts.
No doubt the so-called United Nations will express concern over the bloodshed, and that is it. Many more Southern Cameroonians will die, with words of sympathy ringing in their ears.
By Chi Prudence Asong, London
5, July 2018
Southern Cameroons Crisis: More than half a billion CFA francs ($900 000) collected from the public in Douala 0
On June 20, the government announced plans for a 12.7 billion CFA franc emergency aid plan for the Southwest and Northwest regions, where life has been badly hit by the violence.
The money would come from “the state budget, an appeal to national solidarity and contributions from international partners,” it said. The Northwest and Southwest regions are home to most of Cameroon’s English-speakers, who account for about a fifth of a mainly French-speaking population of 22 million.
Years of resentment at perceived discrimination at the hands of the francophone majority have fuelled demands for anglophone autonomy, which last year culminated in a declaration of independence.
A government crackdown then followed, plunging the two regions into almost daily acts of violence and retribution.
A government report last week said anglophone separatists in Cameroon had killed 81 members of the security forces and more than 100 civilians, and torched at least 120 schools.
The overall toll among civilians remains unclear.
According to the International Crisis Group (ICG) think-tank, at least 120 civilians and 43 members of the security forces have been killed since the end of 2016.
The UN says 160 000 people have been internally displaced and 20, 000 have sought refuge in neighbouring Nigeria.
The presence of a large English-speaking minority dates back to the colonial period.
Cameroon, once a German colony, was divided between Britain and France after World War I.
The French colony gained independence in 1960, becoming Cameroon. The following year, the British-ruled Southern Cameroons was amalgamated into it, giving rise to the Northwest and Southwest regions.
Source: AFP