The United States embassy in Cameroon has asked the government to probe a deadly hospital arson that claimed four lives at the Kumba District hospital on Monday.

The Embassy reacted to the attack in a February 12 statement stressing that the government must probe, hold perpetrators accountable and also publicly publish results of the said probe.

“We call on the Cameroonian government to conduct a transparent investigation into this crime, to ensure the courts hold the perpetrators accountable, and to make the Cameroonian people aware of its findings,” the statement read in part. We urge both sides in the Northwest and Southwest Regions of Cameroon to allow unfettered access to humanitarian and healthcare workers, and never to attack hospitals or health centers.”

There is a raging back and forth over who were responsible for the attack. The government through the South West region’s governor has condemned the attack. Whiles separatist elements operating in the area are usually blamed for such attacks on social service outlets, the army has also been widely reported as carrying out attacks on institutions believed to be serving the separatists. The hospital was serving a large pool of patients given that most smaller health outfits had been closed due to threats by separatists.

General Melingui of the Cameroun army had publicly admitted that forces under his command torched civilian and other protected settlements in the execution of the senseless war. For this admission, he was promptly relieved of his command.  That public admission of responsibility, removed reasonable doubts about the forces torching of civilian and protected settlements as weapons of war targeting civilians and civilian objects.

Short of a similar admission in the Kumba Hospital case, it will take an independent investigation by internationally recognized or certified forensic experts to apportion responsibility for this despicable crime, although going by the prior admission by General Melingui,  the consistent pattern of conduct in which the torching of civilian settlements he admitted ,may provide similar facts evidence to establish criminal responsibility for this and other crimes targeting civilian and other protected settlements.

Full statement from the U.S. Embassy in Cameroon:

The United States condemns the arson attack on Kumba District Hospital, in Southwest Region.  The fire is reported to have resulted in the deaths of several patients and caused considerable damage during the early morning hours of February 11.

We express our deepest condolences to the victims’ families and our admiration for the courageous medical staff.

We call on the Cameroonian government to conduct a transparent investigation into this crime, to ensure the courts hold the perpetrators accountable, and to make the Cameroonian people aware of its findings.

We urge both sides in the Northwest and Southwest Regions of Cameroon to allow unfettered access to humanitarian and healthcare workers, and never to attack hospitals or health centers.

We appeal to both sides of the Anglophone conflict to forswear further violence and enter into a broad-based dialogue without pre-conditions.

Reported by Africa News and Cameroon Concord News

President Paul Biya celebrated his 86 birthday with family and friends of his ruling CPDM crime syndicate in his village in the South region.  It is being reported that the event cost the government of Cameroon hundreds of millions of franc CFA.

Biya’s big birthday bash was held in Mvomeka’a. He was reportedly joined by his kinsmen and women wearing clothing adorned with Biya’s image. The celebrations have proven a distraction from discussions in the country about the health of the long-time president.

Biya took power in 1982 via a French sponsored palace coup against the late Ahmadou Ahidjo. He reportedly spent the majority of the festivities sitting impassively, as his wife Chantal and other family members praised his leadership style.

Biya’s birthday party and its price tag comes at a time when the people and government of Cameroon are facing a long list of difficulties.  Southern Cameroonians have declared a separate state from La Republique du Cameroun. Boko Haram continues to cause mayhem in the Far North region. The security situation in the East region is growing from bad to worse due to sporadic fighting involving militant groups from the Central African Republic. And the Cameroonian economy continues to struggle, with many young people having difficulty finding steady work.

“Many citizens can rarely have a decent meal and Biya is busy celebrating” said a French speaking Cameroonian and father of four. Anti-Biya sentiment has been growing on social media with many Cameroonians saying that the birthday party is the most irresponsible, idiotic, frivolous thing they have ever seen.

An Anglophone journalist, George Ewane of the state owned Cameroon Radio and Television recently compared Biya to Jesus Christ. But questions of Biya’s health persist. He is often seen in Geneva, Switzerland and hardly attends cabinet meetings.

By Sama Ernest

Cameroon’s opposition leader Maurice Kamto was on Tuesday charged with rebellion, insurrection and hostility against the homeland, more than two weeks after his arrest on 28 January, one of his lawyers said.

Kamto lost what he says was a fraudulent presidential election in October and was detained late last month after organising a small rally against long-serving President Paul Biya.

Security services broke up that rally with live fire, shooting and wounding six people, and have put down other rare anti-Biya protests across the country, including the main commercial city Douala and the capital Yaounde, since the vote.

There was no immediate comment from Kamto’s party and supporters whether the charges made against him on Tuesday would trigger more demonstrations. “The investigating judges charged Maurice Kamto at the military tribunal,” his lawyer Christopher Ndong told Reuters.

“This is not a judicial matter. This is politics.” Another of his lawyers, Emmanuel Simh, told Reuters the charges he faces include: “hostility against the homeland, incitement to insurrection, offence against the president of the republic, destruction of public buildings and goods.”

Twenty-two members of his Cameroon Renaissance Movement (MRC) are also on trial for the same charges, lawyers said.

Crushing dissent

Cameroon authorities could not immediately be reached for comment. Rights groups have accused Biya, 85, of silencing opposition voices throughout his 36-years ruling the central African cocoa and oil exporter – charges he denies.

Unrest has historically been rare in Cameroon, and when it happens it tends to be quelled with overwhelming force.

Protests erupted in its troubled western Anglophone region more than two years ago, and after they were repressed they morphed into a low level rebellion.

The United States this month said it would withhold some military aid over allegations of human rights violations, but in the same week France said its defence cooperation with Cameroon would continue.

Reuters

Human rights activists are calling on the authorities in Cameroon to release a student arrested last week in the country’s Anglophone regions.

Emeline Njongwan had shared a video showing dozens of students being led from hostels to the police station.

The Director of the Centre for Human Rights and Democracy in Africa, Felix Agbor Nkongho, condemned the arrest which he said was part of a government strategy to ensure people kept silent about abuses committed by the military in Cameroon.

A secessionist rebellion in the two English speaking regions of the country has displaced hundreds of thousands of people. On Monday, four people died when a hospital was burnt down in the town of Kumba.

News Day

Four people died when gunmen raided a hospital and burnt it to the ground in western Cameroon where anglophone separatists have been fighting troops, witnesses and a local official said Monday.

The incident occurred in Kumba, a town which serves as the commercial hub for the anglophone region and which has been badly hit by the violence between separatists and Cameroon troops that began in October 2017.

“Attackers killed four people and burnt down the hospital,” said an administrative official in the Kumba region, confirming information from a witness.

It was not immediately clear whether the victims were shot or died in the fire, nor whether they were patients at the facility. Another local source said it appeared separatists were behind the attack.

The incident occurred on National Youth Day, the anniversary of the 1961 referendum which saw Cameroon’s western English-speaking areas joined onto the francophone areas which had just won independence from France.

Kumba lies about 70 kilometres (45 miles) north of Buea, capital of the Southwest region which along with the Northwest region is home to an anglophone minority that accounts for about a fifth of the country’s population.

Both areas, which were once ruled by Britain, have long complained of discrimination at the hands of the French-speaking majority and where separatists are fighting for independence.

Since the start of February, at least four people have been killed in Buea, one of whom was decapitated, as separatists announced plans to disrupt the February 11 anniversary.

Over the past 16 months, there have been regular clashes between troops and groups of separatists who have attacked police stations, schools and staged mass kidnappings.

UN figures show around 437,000 people have been forced out of their homes by the ongoing conflict, with another 32,000 fleeing across the border to neighbouring Nigeria.

AFP