A massacre in an anglophone region of Cameroon left up to 22 villagers dead including 14 children, the UN said Sunday, with an opposition party blaming the killings on the army.

Cameroon government army soldiers carried out the bloodshed on Friday in the village of Ntumbo in the Northwest region, James Nunan, a local official of humanitarian coordination agency OCHA, told AFP.

“Up to 22 civilians were killed, including a pregnant woman and several children,” Nunan said, adding that 14 children — including nine under age five — were among the dead.

Eleven of the children were girls, said Nunan, head of OCHA’s office for the Northwest and Southwest regions, which are home to the West African country’s large English-speaking minority.

Separatists in the regions have been fighting the central government for three years.

The Movement for the Rebirth of Cameroon, one of the country’s two main opposition parties, issued a statement saying: “The dictatorial regime (and) the supreme head of the security and defence forces are chiefly responsible for these crimes.”

A key figure in the separatist movement, lawyer Agbor Mballa, in a Facebook post also accused “state defence forces” of carrying out the killings.

An army official contacted by AFP early Sunday denied the allegations, saying simply: “False”. No other official response was immediately available.

The three-year conflict between anglophone forces seeking to break away from French-speaking Cameroon has claimed more than 3,000 lives and forced more than 700,000 people to flee their homes.

Friday’s killings followed elections on February 9 that were marred by violence in the regions blamed both on separatists and security forces.

Armed separatists prevented people from voting, threatening reprisals, while government soldiers were a heavy presence.

Separatists kidnapped more than 100 people and torched property in the run-up to the elections, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said on Wednesday.

The government has not yet announced the results of the elections or turnout figures.

Reported by AFP with additional editing from Camcordnews

The Southern Cameroons crisis that started in 2016 has taking a turn for the worse, as the Yaounde government has triggered its genocide mode.

On Friday, Febrauary 14, 2020, army soldiers committed their worst human rights crimes by murdering over 38 women and children in Cameroon’s English-Speaking community of Ngarbuh in Donga Mantung Division in the North West region.

Most of the victims, many of whom are pregnant women and toddlers, were either burned alive or shot dead by Cameroon government soldiers.

The initial reports early on Friday put the figure at 30, but by Saturday, more corpses were recovered in the bushes, pushing the number to close to 40.

Despite the outrage triggered by the inhuman killing of toddlers and pregnant women, the Yaounde government has remained silent about the killings which are not the first of their kind in the two English-speaking regions of the country, where an insurgency has been unfolding over the last three years.

Southern Cameroonian armed groups calling for the total liberation of their homeland have met with a violent reaction from the Yaounde government led by its 87-year-old dictator, Paul Biya, who has rejected calls by the international community for an inclusive dialogue that will restore peace to the once-upon-a time oasis of peace in a desert of chaos.

Since winning another term in office through foul means in 2018, Mr. Biya who has led the country for almost 38 years and has only succeeded to run the economy aground has vowed that there will never be any inclusive dialogue as long as he is in power.

In a response to the calls for an inclusive dialogue, the corrupt and inefficient Yaounde government hastily organized a major national dialogue which was everything but major, and promptly fabricated its own Diaspora which attended the unrecognized event and called for a special status for the country’s two English-speaking regions.

From every indication, it is clear that the special status called for death to all Southern Cameroonians living in the two English-speaking regions of the country.

The killing of more than 35 civilians on Friday by army soldiers comprising mostly of people of Beti extraction in a state-sponsored and pre-meditated genocide, has drawn condemnation from across the globe, including a call from the United Nations for a thorough and impartial investigation.

This callous act of unprecedented savagery commandeered by the country’s defense minister, Joseph  Beti Assomo, has left the world in total shock, with the Trump Administration mulling sanctions against the Yaounde government that has been conducting itself as a rogue regime.

 Back in Cameroon, there has been widespread condemnation of the act committed by government forces.  Many prominent voices are urging the world to stand up to this new rise in gross immorality and an attack on civilization.

The calls are getting louder, urging the world to ensure that the criminal regime in Yaounde that is killing its own people be held fully accountable for the gross human rights violations and war crimes.

It is being reported that the regime had sent two army generals to the two English-speaking regions of the country with the sole purpose of decimating the population.

Besides the United Nations, condemnations have also come from some Cameroonian political parties such MRC led by Professor Maurice who is the rightful winner of the 2018 presidential elections.

MRC expression of total disappointment with the government’s action comes as no surprise as the party has always called for an inclusive dialogue as the framework that can ensure Cameroon remains one and indivisible.

“Shocking images circulating on the social media are evident of grave crimes against humanity in general and human procreation in particular. These are undoubtedly criminal acts orchestrated by individuals who harbor an ignominious genocidal project” the party’s press statement stated.

Also, a renowned Buea-based human rights lawyer, Felix Nkongho Agbor Balla is one of those voices that have called for an investigation into the killings.

He directly accused government soldiers of carrying out the attack on civilians, stressing that those responsible for these crimes should be brought to justice.

“The gruesome murder of 27 civilians, including women and children by the State Defense Forces on 14 February 2020 in Ngarbuh, Donga Mantung Division of the North West Region in Cameroon must be investigated and the perpetrators of such egregious crimes brought to justice,” he said.

The government’s latest action seems to have prompted Southern Cameroonians across the world to cast their differences aside in order to face their common enemy – the Yaounde government.

Since Friday, Southern Cameroonian activists have been very busy condemning the Yaounde government and issuing declarations on the way forward.

While each of them speaks for their own group, the common denominator in their declarations is that French-speaking Cameroonians living in Southern Cameroons must pack up and leave, as their security can no longer be guaranteed.

Currently, there are massive fund-raising efforts taking place in Washington D.C., Houston, Dallas, Atlanta, Toronto, Ottawa and London (UK) to arm the fighters on the ground as the Yaounde government only understands a tough language.

Speaking to the Cameroon Concord News Group on Sunday from the United States capital, a Southern Cameroonian who is participating in the fund-raising efforts said that the response had been encouraging, adding that the killings in the Northwest region came with something positive.

“They have broken down the firewalls that were dividing us and we are now trying to build bridges that will enable us to work together in order to give the Yaounde government a run for its money,” the official who elected anonymity said.

“We are urging all Southern Cameroonians to donate to any group of their choice. Our focus for now is on arming our boys and ensuring that the different factions work together,” he stressed.

“A few divisions in the past have hurt us and we have learned our lessons. We now understand that fighting against each other only makes the enemy stronger and more determined. We are learning to accept differences. We have also learned that making common cause will help us make a bigger impact,” he added.

Meanwhile a container full of arms was caught last week at the Tiko wharf. The weapons were hidden in bags of garri and rice and it is believed that they were destined for Ambazonian fighters in Fako Division.

A source at the Tiko customs post hinted that the weapons were discovered because of an informant who is close to one of the group that was expecting the weapons.

The source revealed that the government was seeking to keep everything under wraps, as publicizing it could embolden the fighters and their arms suppliers.

The informant also said that though the shipment destined for Fako fighters had been found out, the ones for other divisions might have reached their real destination.

He pointed to the sophisticated weapons the fighters were bearing, adding that the quality of their weapons had emboldened them and brought them some victories and recognition.

From every indication, Cameroon is in for tougher times. The massacres in the Northwest region have only helped to unite Southern Cameroonians and they are already mobilizing resources to provide a proper response to the government’s genocidal acts.

Some Southern Cameroonians are calling for the war to be taken to towns and villages on the border between Southern Cameroons and East Cameroon.

Some say if French-speaking Cameroonians do not get hurt, they will never be aware of the atrocities of their government.

The world has to intervene. Condemnation and long speeches will never stop the killings. Cameroon has been caught up in an orgy of killing and only the international community can bail it out, as both factions do not trust each other.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai in the United Kingdom and James Nkongho in Yaounde

The unborn children of Southern Cameroons women are the targets of a sickening war declared against the English speaking community by the 87 year old president Paul Biya. Our chief intelligence officer in Bamenda reported that Cameroon government army soldiers are now being promoted to senior ranks after leading operations in the crisis hit South West and North West.

Cameroon Intelligence Report has witnessed evidence of Cameroon government troops using civilians as target practice and recently shooting pregnant women in the stomach, killing their unborn babies.

Horrifying: This image shows a young mother and her child killed in Ngarbuh with bullets lodged in their brains

Several Southern Cameroonians who have fled the territory have told of the horrors suffered by civilians caught in the French Cameroun genocidal campaign, describing it as hell beyond hell. Many women and children in both the North West and South West regions have been killed by Cameroon government soldiers and their wounds followed disturbing patterns.

Medics at the Bamenda Regional Hospital contacted by Cameroon Intelligence Report revealed that some of the women and children receiving treatment at the facility were shot to the groin, the left chest and neck. A physician who spoke to us but sued for anonymity said in his 12 years volunteering in the Congo, this is the first time he had witnessed pregnant women being targeted.

He described the 4 women patients from Ngarbuh who were brought to Bamenda with support from the Roman Catholic Church saying that the women were all shot through the uterus.

The civil war in Southern Cameroons is showing no evidence of slowing down as Cameroon government army soldiers are clashing with Ambazonia Restoration Forces. Recent clashes saw the killing of dozens in Muyuka and Bui County, including one of Southern Cameroons top self defense officers, General Cha Cha.

His death, celebrated by the Biya Francophone Beti Ewondo regime, marked a significant setback for Southern Cameroons bid to gain complete independence from French Cameroun.

The level of barbarism being perpetuated by Mr Biya’s military and his government militias as they pursue their genocidal war and scorch earth policy to completely annihilate the Southern Cameroons (Ambazonia) is alarming. So far, as a result of the on-going genocide in the Southern Cameroons (Ambazonia), an estimated 20,000 people have been killed, over 280 towns and villages have been burnt down, over 120,000 people are seeking refuge in Nigeria and further afield, over 1 million people are internally displaced or living in bushes and over 3,000 persons incarcerated in prisons and detention facilities.

It is also reported that over 4.5. Million people are at risk of famine. One thing we know for sure is that Mr Biya and his military and private militia will be held accountable for these crimes. While not exonerating Ambazonian self-defense forces, we also know that Mr Biya’s government is doing everything through its private militia (popularly known as Atanga Nji Boys) to commit atrocities and link them to self-defense forces, so as to evoke international sympathy. Only an independent fact-finding mission can establish the facts and thus far, Mr. Biya’s government has resisted all requests by independent humanitarian organizations to visit Southern Cameroons and establish the facts.

International efforts are growing to convene peace talks but French government support for the regime in Yaounde is preventing any rare agreement among global powers.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

The United Nations has condemned the killing of more than 20 people in Ngar, Donga Mantung Division, Northwest region.

The victims, most of whom were children and pregnant women, were killed by Cameroon’s army soldiers who have been on a rampage over the last two weeks.

The United Nations humanitarian coordinator in the Northwest region has condemned the killings and has urged the Yaounde government to open an investigation into the killing of innocent civilians.

After killing the women and children, the military set their houses on fire, destroying every little property that was owned by the people.

The killings have been orchestrated with the approval of the Northwest regional governor, Adolphe Lele L’Afrique and the army commanders in charge of military operations in the region.

Many people are wondering what children and pregnant women might have done for them to be killed by army soldiers who are supposed to be protecting them.

It should be recalled that the government has been urging civilians lurking in the bushes to return to their homes, but each time these helpless civilians return to their villages, army soldiers attack them and burn their homes.

The UN aid coordinator also called on armed groups to stop attacking aid workers who simply want to help the desperate and internally displaced.

The Yaounde government has been using disproportionate force in the two English-speaking regions of the country in order to put an end to an insurgency that has lasted for almost 4 years.

The country’s president, Paul Biya, had promised to use violent means to end the conflict in his end-of-year speech, and he has been as good as his word. He holds that committing such atrocities will strike fear in the minds of the local population and the fighters.

Despite calls by the international community for a peaceful resolution, including calls by the Pope, the Yaounde government has continued to hold that only military violence can put an end to the insurgency.

Key members of the president’s entourage such as the country’s higher education minister, Fame Ndongo, and defense minister, Joseph Beti Assomo, have successfully created a war economy which is lining their pockets.

These two ministers are working behind the scenes to ensure that the fighting does not end. Due to their intransigence and corruption, their names have appeared on a US list of people who are very likely to be sanctioned by the US government.

It should also be recalled that many people have been killed over the last month, especially in the run-up to the twin elections which took place on February 9, 2020; elections whose fairness and turnout were questionable, and whose results were already known even before the elections were organized.

The Southern Cameroons crisis which started in 2016 has already resulted in the deaths of over 5,000 people, most of whom are civilians and had nothing to do with the insurgency that is playing out in the two English-speaking regions of the country.

By Rita Akana in Yaounde

It was the last day of the summer holidays when, on his way to meet friends in his hometown of Batouri, eastern Cameroon, 12-year-old Saustem Brandon Samba slipped on reddish mud and fell into what at first looked like a large puddle.

The puddle turned out to be an abandoned gold mine, with a steep drop, 18 metres deep. Samba tried to get out, his arms and legs scrambling frantically in search of something to grip on to as muddy water choked him.

His father, Sah, still carries a photo of his son’s lifeless body after it was recovered from the mining pit in September 2017.

Between 2017 and 2019, at least 115 children and adults drowned or were buried alive by landfalls in the mostly abandoned pits in the East and Adamawa regions of Cameroon,according to Forests and Rural Development (Foder), a local watchdog that is alone in tracking the accidents and deaths.

“The whole area was not at all secure,” says Sah, whose fury is clear as he describes how gold mining pits in the region – which locals call “tombs” – have been left open and abandoned by Chinese companies, among others.

Samba’s tragic death was not exceptional. The recorded body count, say campaigners, is only the tip of the iceberg in terms of forgotten victims of the ruthless modern-day hunt for one of the world’s most sought-after metals – gold.

Cameroon has one of the richest subsoils in Africa.

Since 2008, gold prices have risen and informal mining has spread widely across the continent. In recent years, more than 400 mining sites have been dug open by dozens of mining companies in Cameroon, predominantly from China, but also from South Korea, Greece, South Africa and elsewhere, according to Foder. Some British companies advertise online that they conduct gold exploration programmes in the country.

Cameroonian law obliges anyone exploiting a mining site to close and restore it before departing. In practice, however, once miners finish digging up gold from pits of up to 100 metres deep, they simply move on to the next project. Few – if any – mining holes are properly restored.

The scale of this is vast, says Eric Etoga, a Cameroonian activist who has been researching the extractive industries for years for Global Youth Dynamic, a local NGO. According to a study he produced in June 2019 for the Publish What You Pay campaign group, mining companies had left 248 open mining holes in in one area of east Cameroon alone. “We need sanctions – without them, people continue to do whatever they want,” said Etoga.

Cameroon’s ministry of mines did not reply to repeated requests for comment.

The Cameroonian branch of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), a global body that promotes itself as setting the “global standard to promote the open and accountable management of oil, gas and mineral resources”, also failed to address the deaths in the mines, simply forwarding government reassurances that the numbers of mortalities in abandoned pits have significantly decreased over the past two years.

The ministry of mines added that there are fewer deaths following its implementation of information campaigns. “The risky zones have been marked and picture-diagrams have been erected to inform locals of the dangers,” wrote Aristide Mimbang of Cameroon’s mining ministry, in an email forwarded by EITI Cameroon.

Walking among abandoned mining holes in parts of eastern Cameroon, nothing appears further from the truth. Not a single signpost or diagram was seen in the seven sites visited by the Guardian, as unaccompanied young children walked barefoot or wearing flip-flops in the dangerous areas. Women with babies tied on their backs were seen descending into the mines with no protection or safety precautions.

On paper, some British companies extracting gold in Cameroon praise the benefits of the business for local populations, claiming that it helps villagers to survive financially. On the ground, some of the youths working in gold mines confirm that the industry enables them to earn money, which they would otherwise have been unable to do in an underdeveloped region that lacks basic services, including a steady electricity supply.

Yet, when it comes to the open mining pits, corporate reassurances that the holes will be filled up and restored ring hollow. The landscape of eastern Cameroon, which in the past used to provide fertile farming ground for the local population, nowadays resembles the surface of the moon, with giant holes puncturing the once green landscape. As the midday sun heated the pits, the brown, polluted waters inside reek of chemical waste, attracting clouds of buzzing mosquitoes that spread malaria, dengue fever and other killer diseases.

China is Cameroon’s biggest foreign investor and trading partner, operating a wide range of infrastructure projects, from constructing roads to building football stadiums. In January 2019, one of China’s top diplomats, Yang Jiechi, visited the Central African nation.

Yet, in eastern Cameroon, the visit prompted protests, as miners picketed outside a Chinese-run gold mining project in the village of Ngoura, blocking access.
In December 2017, in the nearby village of Ngoe Ngoe, nine people were killed during a land fall in a deep mine left open by the Chinese company Lu and Lang. The pit had been abandoned by workers less than a month earlier.
Chinese and other foreign companies are not the only ones responsible. In 2017, Narma Ndoyama, a farmer, lost his 28-year-old son after he was buried alive in a mine landslide in the Longa Mali village, eastern Cameroon.

“Now his wife is alone trying to provide for five children,” says Ndoyama, adding that the average of 1,500 west African CFA francs (£1.91) he makes each day from farming leaves him unable to help much.

Ndoyama alleges that the mine in which his son died belonged to Société Camerounaise d’Exploitation Minière (SCEM), a company owned by Ali Bachir, a prominent member of Cameroon’s national assembly from the ruling party, the Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement.

The party is led by Cameroon’s president, Paul Biya, who, aged 87, is currently Africa’s second longest-ruling autocrat (after Equatorial Guinea’s president Teodoro Obiang).

Ndoyama said that he had tried to press SCEM officials to launch an inquiry into his son’s death in the hope of getting some desperately needed compensation for the family, but received no response. “The gendarmerie came to do an investigation, but there was no follow up,” he says. “The state lets people just die in the holes.”

In a telephone interview, Ali Bachir confirmed that he owns SCEM and that the company is still operating, but denied that his company is involved in digging mining pits.

“There’s not even a single hole that we’ve left open,” he said.

“We do research,” he added. “It’s the Chinese who left the holes open … It’s they who are exploiting gold in Betare Oya.”

Yet official ministry of mines documents obtained by the Guardian show that SCEM has conducted gold exploitation in several sites in eastern Cameroon – all without proper authorisation. According to the documents, two branches of SCEM were operating in the Betare Oya region in 2016, using five excavators, and declaring a total of 230 grams of gold a month.

In April 2018, Cameroon’s ministry of mines issued a notice to force companies including SCEM and Lu and Lang to shut down their operations, in some cases because of the safety hazards posed by deserted open holes. SCEM was found to have been operating without any formal authorisation or licensing, the mining minister said at the time.

A total of 1,776 Cameroonians signed a petition, initiated by Foder, that called on the government to force mining companies to abide by the law and close the open pits.

“Honourable ministers, how many more deaths do you want in order to put an end to this?,” the petitioners asked. “These irresponsible mining companies… are pillaging us and they are killing us.

“These poisonous lakes, these gold pits have become tombs.”

As the presence of mining companies destroys farm land, pollutes water sources and poisons the local fish, instead of digging the ground for crops the locals are now digging for gold in order to survive. Processing such gold poses serious health hazards.

Mercury is an essential tool in some types of gold extraction because of its ability to bind gold particles together. Yet it is also a poison – whether its fumes are inhaled, its particles are eaten through contaminated fish or water, or simply if someone touches it with their bare hands.

Besides lung damage it can lead to memory loss, irritability, depression, kidney failure, tremors, numbness and discoloured, peeling or scaly skin. Extreme mercury poisoning can cause paralysis, coma, or insanity. In a 2018 study measuring blood mercury levels in miners in eastern Cameroon, almost one in 10 (9.1%) of the miners had blood that was chronically intoxicated with mercury.

Yet Marie Louise, a mother of five in her 40s living in Longa Mali, is handling mercury freely as she stands ankle-deep in a pool of opaque mustard coloured water just metres from her front door. Her children stand in the water with her, watching her form a tiny, ladybird-sized blob to sell for $2 (£1.53) for a local dealer. Silvery globules spread into the water as the children splash and rub their eyes, while Marie Louise massages the remaining mercury with her hands.

The Cameroonian mining code forbids the use of mercury for this purpose due to its toxic health effects. Gold mining companies operating here are quick to cite this. Yet, on the ground, the use of mercury is freely observed at many gold mining sites, often just a few hundred metres away from local policemen who are seen slumbering in the shade of mango trees.

Mining companies also say they use pictures to illustrate the dangers of mercury use as a deterrent.

“I know the dangers,” Marie Louise admitted. ”But it’s money. Without this, how will we live?,” she ssays, adding that the children also sometimes use mercury to help with gold processing.

“When we see that the belly is empty, we have to do it in order to eat,” she adds, gesturing to her children.

For Cameroon’s young generation, the gold mining industry is not only claiming lives in accidents in unsecured pits, but also results in many students dropping out of school. One headmaster of a school in Betare Oya told the Guardian that each year, almost half of the students drop out to work in gold mines as soon as the dry season begins in December. The pattern is the same throughout the gold mining areas of eastern Cameroon.

On the ground, the locals say they see few changes.

In Batouri, the abandoned mining pit in which Saustem Brandon Samba drowned remains open, in the same state as when the 12-year-old fell into it, his father said.

“It’s not even secure,” his father Sah says. “Nothing has been done.

“And there are more than 100 others like it nearby.”

“The more I research it, the more I realise that people are taking advantage from people’s ignorance,” says Etoga.

“If it had been a population that had been sufficiently educated, who had a good level of knowledge, it wouldn’t be happening. But there, many people don’t know anything – especially if they spend their time in the mines instead of going to school.

“Some say that gold has brought us so much money, so many millions.

“But if you weigh it against all that we have lost, you will see that we’ve gained nothing. Nothing at all.”

Culled from The Guardian.com

The conflict between government forces and armed separatists in Cameroon’s Anglophone north-west and south-west regions has intensified since December. Over the past weeks clashes between the two sides, as well as increased attacks on villages, has led to dozens of killings, abductions and increased civilian displacement. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs estimates that as of 31 January at least 679,393 people have been internally displaced in the north-west and south-west regions, while 51,000 have fled to neighboring Nigeria.

The latest violence took place in the run-up to parliamentary and municipal elections that were held on Sunday, 9 February. To ensure the elections went ahead in the disputed Anglophone regions, the government announced numerous security measures and significantly expanded its military presence. However, the security forces have been accused of burning several Anglophone villages and of indiscriminately shooting civilians. According to Fabien Offner, Lake Chad Researcher at Amnesty International, “in recent weeks, brutal military operations have been conducted while crimes committed by armed separatists continue unabated. Civilians are finding themselves trapped in a spiral of violence.”

Since December armed separatists have also attempted to sabotage the election process, including by abducting candidates. The separatist Ambazonia Interim Government declared Sunday’s elections illegal and announced a six-day lockdown between 7 and 12 February. Separatists reportedly issued threats against any civilians who did not observe the lockdown or attempted to vote.

Following a national political dialogue last October, President Paul Biya granted “special status” to the two Anglophone regions. However, separatist groups refused to participate in the government-led dialogue and power is still concentrated in the Francophone administration in Yaoundé. Sunday’s municipal elections were the first to be held in seven years and were supposed to be a step towards greater regional autonomy.

In order to resolve the ongoing armed conflict in Cameroon, the international community – particularly the African Union and the Economic Community of Central African States – should ensure that President Biya organizes genuine peace negotiations that include representatives of all Anglophone groups. Meanwhile, government forces and armed separatists must immediately end all extrajudicial killings of unarmed civilians and ensure that the human rights of all Cameroonians are equally protected, regardless of language, cultural identity or political affiliation.

Source: Reliefweb