Amnesty International is launching a new campaign urging Cameroon’s authorities to investigate the enforced disappearance of more than 130 men and boys, who were rounded up from their villages more than five years ago and have not been heard from since.

On 27 December 2014, Cameroonian security forces arbitrarily arrested over 200 men and boys in Magdémé and Doublé, two villages in the Far-North region, during a violent raid in which eight people were killed including a child and more than 70 buildings burned down. At least 130 of them are still missing.

The campaign, “Where are they? Accountability for victims of human rights violations in the villages of Magdémé and Doublé in Cameroon’s Far-North is launched on 10 March 2020. It aims to urge the authorities to provide answers for the families of those who are missing and hold accountable the security forces responsible for the human rights violations committed during the raid and the subsequent enforced disappearances.

“For five years, life has been on hold for the relatives of the men and boys who disappeared on that terrible day in 2014. We want to show them that they have not been forgotten, and that we will continue to pressure the Cameroonian authorities until the truth is uncovered for each one of the 130 men and boys,” said Samira Daoud, Amnesty International West and Central Africa Regional Director.

“President Paul Biya’s government must break the deafening silence surrounding these enforced disappearances, give answers to the families of victims and allow justice to be served.”

On 27 December 2014, security forces sealed off the villages of Magdémé and Doublé, in the Mayo Sava department in the Far-North of Cameroon, to conduct a cordon and search operation following repeated attacks by Boko Haram in the area. Eight people, including a child, were killed, and homes were burned and looted.

Cameroon’s authorities have stated that only 70 men were arrested during the roundup. They acknowledge that 25 died on their first night in custody, but have not disclosed the location of the bodies, or even identified the victims. They have denied that more than 200 were arrested that day and that 130 forcibly disappeared since.

The authorities have also confirmed that 45 people were transferred to Maroua prison the day after their arrest. Of those 45 people, three died due to dire detention conditions and the 42 others were released in July 2017.

In 2015, a presidential decree dismissed a top army official, Colonel Zé Onguéné Charles, who was the head of the gendarmerie in the Far-North at the time of the raid. An investigation was opened into his responsibility in the events of the 27 December 2014 and he was charged with negligence and breach of custody law, which are infractions of ‘correctional nature’ – offenses of less gravity than criminal ones-. To date, the outcome of this judicial proceeding against him remains unknown. In March 2019 he was named Advisor at the Ministry of Defense.

“The suffering of the victims’ families is exacerbated by the authorities’ refusal to tell the truth or even acknowledge that their loved ones are missing,” said Samira Daoud.

“We are calling for an immediate investigation into these disappearances and other human rights violations which took place in Magdémé and Doublé. The perpetrators must be brought to justice.”

Background

The people of Cameroon’s Far-North have been caught in the middle of fighting between Boko Haram and the security forces for more than five years now.

There was a clear resurgence of attacks by Boko Haram in 2019. This was largely overshadowed in the media and authorities’ attention by the crisis in Cameroon’s Anglophone regions, leaving people in the Far-North feeling abandoned.

The Cameroon military has the right and duty to protect people against human rights abuses committed by Boko Haram, but in doing so they must not violate human rights themselves.

Culled from Amnesty International

An artisanal bomb ripped through the grand stand where government officials were gathered to celebrate International Women’s Day in Cameroon’s northwest regional capital, Bamenda, on Sunday, March 8, 2020, killing 5 people, including 4 uniformed officers.

The locally-made bomb that was intended to disrupt Women’s Day celebrations is a clear indication that the government is incapable of restoring security in the two English-speaking regions of the country where an insurgency has been playing out for almost four years.

The bomb, which went off early on Sunday, left many people wounded, including more than five soldiers who were on hand to provide security to the event that was attended by the Northwest regional governor, Adolpe Lele L’Afrique, who many thought was the real target of the bomb.

Cameroon has been caught in a web of insecurity ever since the country’s English-speaking minority took to the streets in October 2016 to complain about marginalization and corruption that have blighted the lives of the people of former British Southern Cameroons.

True to its logic, the government responded with military violence, making things worse. A protest that was started by teachers and lawyers was mismanaged by the government and this has resulted in the killing of some 10,000 Cameroonians, including more than 3,000 army soldiers who have been deployed to the two regions in a peace-restoration mission that has brought more pain and suffering to the local population than peace.

The atrocities are simply mindboggling. Government forces which are supposed to protect the population have been running amok in the two regions. No city or village has been spared by the government’s blind anger and frustration.

In the Southwest regions, thousands of civilians have been hacked to death by army soldiers. Some have been burnt alive by militia created and sponsored by the Defense Minister, Joseph Beti Assomo; Higher Education Minister, Jacques Fame Ndongo; and Territorial Administration Minister, Paul Atanga Nji, who hold that only violent military actions could help to bring back peace to the restive regions.

In villages such as Kwakwa, Muyuka, Muyenge, Ossing and Kembong, all towns in the Southwest region, many elderly people have been burnt alive by government forces which are using the notorious scorch earth policy in the hope that it will obtain results very fast. But all their efforts have been in vain.

More than 200 villages have been deleted from the country’s map by alcohol-inflamed and trigger-happy soldiers. The pain and suffering brought onto the people of Southern Cameroons have left everybody in the two regions with a feeling of revenge and many Southern Cameroonians living abroad have decided to finance an armed conflict which they hold could result in independence.

But the most shocking killings were the ones that occurred on Valentine’s Day in Ngarbuh and which caused outrage around the world, causing French President, Emmanuel Macron, to express his frustration with a Yaounde government that has been reluctant to employ peaceful means to address the issues that have triggered the insurgency.

The situation is running out of control and it is even spreading to East Cameroon with many people living in Francophone villages neighboring Southern Cameroons fleeing because of increased military activity and violence in their villages.

As the violence in the two English-speaking regions spikes and the country’s economy takes a nosedive, things are becoming complicated for the beleaguered Yaounde government that is now fighting with its back to the wall. Unemployment is at its highest. Cameroonians have lost faith in the system and these unfortunate situations are gradually creating new complicated ones with the country’s Diaspora jumping into the fray.

Violence has become a staple in Cameroon and fear and tension could be read on people’s faces. On March 7, 2020, some 4 Cameroonian servicemen and women were killed in an attack on a military post in the Country’s West Region.

The attack, which took place in Galim where armed fighters linked to the Brigade Anti-Sardinards (BAS) are known to operate against security forces loyal to the Biya regime in Yaounde, has heightened concerns of the population.

Initially, government sources accused Southern Cameroonian separatists for the violent attack that resulted in the seizure of a huge weapons cache from drunk and unprofessional government troops who were caught off guard. But things became a lot clearer later on Saturday when the BAS announced that the assault was its second military operation against troops serving the Biya regime.

A Cameroon government security source revealed that there were more than 75 attackers who came on motorbikes, adding that the assailants also left with vehicles found at the military post.

A new front has therefore emerged. Cameroon is now fighting many wars on many fronts. The country’s military is spread thin and financial resources to persecute the war are fast drying up. With the Southern Cameroons insurgency growing on a daily basis, it is clear that the government’s strategy has not worked and it will not be working anytime, soon.

As the BAS jumps into the game of violence, it is clear that the Yaounde government has a huge crisis on its hands. Boko Haram is still a lethal threat in the country’s Northern part and Central African Republic rebels have become a millstone around the neck of the Cameroon military, as its forces are constantly being kidnapped for ransom.

Things are getting murkier by the day. Even the separatist fighters are not saints. They are doing a lot to increase the insecurity in the two English-speaking regions of the country. Kidnappings have risen and have become a full-time job for many criminals who pass off as Southern Cameroonian fighters.

Last week, a video emerged with Southern Cameroonian fighters carrying the head of a soldier they had beheaded. The video clearly captures the violence that plays out in the two English-speaking regions on a daily basis. In many towns and villages, many people have been killed by separatist fighters on suspicion of collaborating with the government.

In Ossing, a town some 5 miles from Mamfe in the Southwest region, the regent chief was killed by some criminals whose affiliation with Southern Cameroonian fighters is questionable. It is being reported that little disputes in the town of Ossing might be responsible for the killing of the regent chief, although the contract killers came from Kembong, a town some 6 miles from Mamfe town.

In Ndekwai, a small village some 4 miles from Mamfe, a young man who had run out of luck in Yaounde and had decided to return to his native village, was set up by his cousins. His cousins told the brutal and unregulated Amba boys that he was collaborating with the government. He was picked up by the Amba boys and taken to the forest where he was asked to put his head into a noose that had been prepared for him.

He had no choice but to accept his unfortunate fate despite his effort to prove that he had nothing to do with the government. When he was suffocating, the Amba boys cut the rope and he landed into a grave that had been dug for him. He was left to die slowly in a shallow grave, but one of the Amba boys had an attack of conscience and returned in time to save the young man who was already drifting in and out of death.

He was taken out of the forest and dropped off somewhere close to home, but was warned to be a good Southern Cameroonian citizen or whatever that meant. The two cousins who had set him up had already fled the village when they were told that the same Amba boys were looking for them because they had lied about an honest man who could have lost his life.

That is the daily reality in Cameroon’s two English-speaking regions; a reality triggered by the government’s penchant for violence and a declining economy that has left many young Cameroonians unemployed. If the international community does not intervene sooner rather than later, Cameroon will become another conflict that is being ignored by the international community which is supposed to pre-empt such unfortunate situations.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai with files from Rita Akana in Bamenda

At least 4 Cameroon servicemen and women were killed in an attack on a military post in the West Region on Saturday.

The attack took place in Galim, where armed fighters linked to Brigade Anti Sardinards (BAS) are known to operate against security forces loyal to the Biya regime in Yaounde.

Cameroon Intelligence Report sources hinted that the provisional toll is 4 dead and several wounded.

A local businessman told the Cameroon Concord News Group that all those killed were police and gendarmerie officers, adding he saw 4 bodies being transported away by the military to Mbouda

Heavily armed French Cameroun fighters stormed the gendarmerie post at Galim and took away a lot of material,” he said, adding some Cameroon government officers were able to escape the attack.

BAS announced that the assault was its second military operation against troops serving the Biya regime.  A Cameroon government security source revealed that there were more than 75 attackers who came on motorbikes, adding the assailants left with all the weapons and vehicles at the post.

By Chi Prudence Asong with Intel files from Rita Akana

150 women from Cameroon who have been imprisoned for months in a for-profit ICE detention center in Texas have been transferred to other remote immigration jails, in apparent retaliation for their protests over indefinite detention and dangerous conditions.

In a letter sent to the advocacy group Grassroots Leadership last month headlined “A Cry for Help,” the Cameroonian women complained of medical neglect at the T. Don Hutto immigration jail, writing, “Some of our sisters are sick and not being well treated. Others are running mad due to trauma and stress. … The medical department is very rude to us, they tell us we’re pretending to be sick even when someone is in serious pain.”

The Cameroonian asylum seekers also say they’re being discriminated against, writing, “Almost all the white women we came in with and even others who came after us have been released on parole and bond but we’ve been denied both parole and bond.” Advocates fear the women now face possible deportation in retaliation for speaking out against the conditions in T. Don Hutto. The facility has for years been plagued by allegations of abuse.

Source: Democracynow.org

Dr Adamou Ndam Njoya one of French Cameroun’s refined academics is no more. The onetime Minister of National Education and president of the International Organization for Islamic Studies who also moonlighted as leader of the Cameroon Democratic Union, CDU passed away in Yaounde.

Local media recently revealed that he was diagnosed with cancer in 2018 and reportedly spent several months receiving treatment in the Republic of South Africa.

The pro Anglophone politician and lawyer was born on the 8^th of May 1942. He served as Minister of National Education from 1977 to 1980. He founded the Cameroon Democratic Union Party in 1991 and successfully won the mayor ship of Foumban.  He was also elected MP for the Noun Division.

Dr Adamou Ndam Njoya had a strong and productive relation with Ni John Fru Ndi of the Social Democratic Front and both men unsuccessfully ran as presidential candidates in the 1992 historic presidential elections.

Like many common French Cameroun politician, he recently handed over the Foumban council to his wife, Patricia Ndam Njoya, who won the mayoral and legislative elections on February 9th 2020.

By Rita Akana with additional reporting from Oke Akombi Ayukepi Akap in Glasgow

President Donald Trump isn’t the only world leader making it virtually impossible for many Africans to get asylum in the United States. He’s getting plenty of help from allies in the Americas.

Ecuador is closing its doors as one of the few countries in North and South America to welcome African visitors, depriving them of a starting point for their dangerous journeys north by land. If asylum-seekers make it to Mexico, they face a virtual barricade near its southern border with Guatemala.

Trump’s allies are blocking a path for Africans fleeing violence in their homelands as those countries face a U.S. president who has used economic leverage to get help curtailing immigration. Ecuador is pursuing a trade deal with Trump, while Mexico is trying to stay in his good graces after his threat to increase tariffs prompted its crackdown on illegal immigration last year.

People from Cameroon, who are escaping bloodshed that has killed tens of thousands, often win asylum in the U.S. even more than other Africans, but they first must reach American soil. Most are English speakers fleeing torture inflicted by a French-speaking government at war with separatists.

Dozens of them are languishing in Tapachula, a Mexican city of about 300,000 people in a coffee- and banana-growing region along the Guatemalan border.

“I can’t go back to my country. I can’t go forward. I’m stuck. I don’t know what to do,” a 25-year-old Cameroonian said recently at a guest house where he’s staying and relies on handouts to eat.

The man spoke on condition of anonymity because he feared jeopardizing his immigration status in Mexico.

Trump has called asylum “a scam” and adopted several policies to reduce claims, including denying asylum to anyone who passes through another country on the way to the U.S. without seeking refuge there first. Border arrests plummeted 78% in January from a 13-year high in May.

While Ecuador’s 2008 constitution embraces “universal citizenship” that allows almost anyone to visit, its government said in August that people from 11 countries need a visa to come, including from Cameroon and six other African nations. Twelve countries already faced visa restrictions, half of them in Africa.

Jose Valencia, Ecuador’s foreign affairs minister, said the latest visa restrictions followed a detailed study of migration trends.

“Universal citizenship is a principle that is not open to debate and not questioned in the sense that it is valid, an aspiration,” he said in an interview published in El Universo newspaper. The challenge, he said, is “to avoid a regime of universal citizenship that is so open we have to be subject to threats that can affect us and third countries.”

Ecuador’s crackdown comes as Trump dangles a trade deal. He said he was working on it when President Lenin Moreno became the first leader of the small South American nation to meet with a U.S. president in Washington in 17 years.

Trump drew a contrast between Moreno and his leftist predecessor.

“Ecuador had a very unusual outlook on life but, with your great president, he realizes how important it is to get along with the United States,” Trump told reporters of Moreno.

After the Oval Office meeting last month, the acting deputy U.S. Homeland Security secretary, Ken Cuccinelli, said on Twitter: “Hopefully we can all work together to reduce illegal immigration out of Ecuador.”

Cameroonians won U.S. asylum in 81% of cases in the 2019 fiscal year, compared with 29% for all nationalities, according to court data analyzed by Syracuse University’s Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse. Ethiopians had a 77% success rate; Eritreans, 67% and Nigerians, 58%.

To seek asylum in the U.S., Africans fly to South America and travel north by land, on journeys where many get robbed or die from hunger and thirst. It’s faster than seeking refugee status, which has always been an extreme long shot with years of waiting — even more so now that Trump has dramatically cut the number of refugees the U.S. will take.

Bolivia, which is much farther from the U.S. than Ecuador, is the only country in the Americas that accepts people from Cameroon and Eritrea without a visa, according to the Henley Passport Index. People from Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of Congo are barred from all countries in the Americas without a visa.

English-speaking Cameroonians recently began coming to the U.S., perceiving an ally in Trump, said Alexandra Lamarche, an Africa expert at advocacy group Refugees International. Last year, the U.S. scaled back military assistance to Cameroon, a longtime ally, and Trump eliminated some trade benefits over human rights violations, including extrajudicial killings, arbitrary detention and torture.

Cameroonians also felt an affinity with the United States over a shared language, Lamarche said. Many have settled in the Washington, D.C., Dallas and Houston areas.

“Everyone had a connection,” Lamarche said.

More than 2,400 Cameroonians visited Ecuador in 2019, more than three times the previous year, according to government records, including the 25-year-old man stuck in southern Mexico.

He fled Cameroon after being jailed twice on allegations of opposing the government, where he was beaten, forced to lay down in water and walk on his knees on a hard floor.

Being imprisoned in Cameroon “was a lot of stress,” the man said. “You don’t feel where they beat you. They kick you with a heavy boot. They smash my toes.”

Once in South America, he walked six days through the lawless jungle of the notorious Darien Gap between Colombia and Panama. He ran out of food and saw friends swept away by rushing rivers. He said assailants raped women, robbed him of $500 and stole watches and phones.

After three months of waiting for travel documents to leave southern Mexico for the U.S., he left without them in October and was jailed for two months after his bus was stopped at a government checkpoint.

Back in Tapachula, the largest Mexican city along Guatemalan border, he slept on the streets and begged for money until a guest house owner allowed him to sleep on cushions on a hallway floor. For food, he relies on the charity of housemates, who sleep four to a room.

“I don’t know what I can do to leave this place,” he said. “They’re not giving me papers.”

Cameroonians are desperate with nowhere to go, said Salva Lacruz of the Fray Matias de Cordova Human Rights Center in Tapachula.

Last summer, dozens of Cameroonians arrived daily in Tijuana, putting their names on a list of people waiting to be processed for U.S. asylum. Now, hardly any reach the Mexican border city.

A hotel in Tijuana’s red light district rented about 15 rooms to Cameroonians last summer — three in each one. By February, a desk clerk said Cameroonians occupied only two rooms.

Source: Blackvoicenews

Two aid agencies on Wednesday called on Cameroon’s army and separatist fighters to halt attacks on civilians in a conflict between English-speaking separatists and government forces in a predominantly French-speaking country.

Rights groups have accused both sides of atrocities in a two-year conflict that has left more than 3,000 dead, closed schools and clinics and forced 700,000 people to flee their homes.

In a joint statement, the International Rescue Committee (IRC) and Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) called for both sides to respect international law and stop all attacks on civilians.

“The crisis destabilising the English speaking parts of Cameroon has taken a worrying turn, with an increasing number of reports of targeted attacks against civilians,” the NGOs said.

“Survivors have shared testimonies of gruesome attacks that have left children orphaned, people homeless, and limited or cut off access to public facilities such as hospitals and schools.”

Later on Wednesday, French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian joined calls for a proper investigation into an alleged massacre in Ntumbo village in the anglophone northwest on February 14.

“It is absolutely essential we are told who did what,” Le Drian said.

Human Rights Watch last month accused the armed forces in taking part in the killing of 21 civilians, including at least 13 children, in Ntumbo.

The army denied the claims and said the deaths were an accident after fuel supplies exploded into flames during a gun battle with separatists.

Aid agencies say they have faced threats and violence from both sides as they struggle to deliver help to those made vulnerable by the fighting.

“This crisis needs more attention,” said Paul Taylor of the IRC.

“Aid agencies need additional resources to meet the needs of those displaced by this crisis, and all parties need to ensure that aid agencies are able to access those who are in desperate need of basic services.”

English speakers account for nearly a fifth of Cameroon’s population of 24 million, who are majority French-speaking.

Most of the anglophone minority live in two western regions called the Northwest and Southwest, which were once British colonies in West Africa.

Decades of grievances at perceived discrimination brewed into a declaration of independence in October 2017, which was followed by a government crackdown and a separatist insurgency.

The declaration has not been recognised internationally and President Paul Biya, in power for 37 years, has refused demands to return to a federal system.

Source: AFP