The Cameroon defence ministry “formally denies the false allegations” about the army’s role in the massacre of 22 civilians in Donga-Mantung, insisting that it was an “unfortunate accident” following an exchange of fire between security forces and secessionist rebels.

Controversy flared in Cameroon after the announcement of the massacre of at least 22 people in Donga-Mantung district on 14 February during fighting between the Cameroonian defence forces and armed militias operating in the north-west and south-west regions.

The Cameroonian army which, three days after the incident, claimed it was “an unfortunate accident as a collateral consequence of the ongoing security operations in these regions” was singled out by the opposition and local NGOs for being responsible for the killings.

A communiqué issued by Commander Atonfack Guemo, head of the communication division reported that the incident occurred following the incursion of a group of six elements of the defence forces into a house in Ngarbuh, which had been “transformed into a fortified camp” housing illicit goods, arms and ammunition, as well as stocks of narcotics.

“The response of law enforcement elements [under heavy fire from the fortified house] was to remove seven terrorists at the scene. Fighting continued until several fuel containers exploded, followed by a violent fire that affected some nearby houses,” the statement said, which also lists “five victims, including a woman and four children”.

The Cameroonian Defence Forces denounced the images of the massacre circulating on the web, which have alerted the international community, as “a macabre staging” of some propaganda activists who used images dating from 2009.

Contested version

The people of the Northwest contest this version and have refused to see this tragedy as an isolated case. “Similar attacks involving the burning of houses have been reported in several villages in Bui, Ngoketunjia and Mezam in the North-West, but also in Lebialem and Manyu in the South-West, in the last two months. How can we be led to believe that this is an accident with collateral damage? It is unbelievable!” said Cletus Ngeh, a resident of Bamenda contacted by Jeune Afrique.

The human rights group Human Rights Watch in a 2020 report referred to cases of house fires, accusing government forces and separatist fighters of gross human rights violations.

Confronted by the military’s response contradicting that made public by the UN, there are increasing calls for an international investigation.

English-speaking magistrate Paul Ayah Abine, and lawyer Agbor Balla, president of the Centre for Human Rights and Democracy in Africa (CHRDA), who raised the issue on Facebook, want a commission of inquiry, which should be “independent” and include “members of civil society, the clergy and the government”.

Source: The Africa Report

Cameroon government officials are quietly relieved that, during its recent condemnation of the killings at Ngarbuh, the United States administration made no commitment to eventual US recognition of an independent state of Southern Cameroons-Ambazonia.

Less pleasing in the Biya Francophone Beti Ewondo government eyes is the fact that the United States government has asked for witnesses to be protected and for an independent investigation to be carried out. And above all, the Trump administration is still not saying whether or not the international community plans to refer the Southern Cameroons crisis to the International Criminal Court.

And most worrying of all is the warning from the US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, Tibor Peter Nagy Jr that the military campaign ordered by the 87 year old Francophone dictator in Southern Cameroons must stop.

Mr Paul Biya, transparently blamed by the international community for his poor handling of the crisis in Southern Cameroons has not gone beyond France ever since the Swiss government forced him to leave his holiday resort in Geneva last year.

And US officials including Ambassador Peter Henry Barlerin are adamant that the killing of innocent Southern Cameroons civilians including women and children by the Francophone dominated Cameroon government military must come to an end.

We understand the United States and the European Union have decided at least for now not to join the people of Southern Cameroons who are seeking an independent state of Ambazonia, but senior EU and US Administration officials say that they have urged President Biya to end the war in Southern Cameroons or face severe consequences.

We gathered that US Assistant Secretary of State, Hon. Tibor Peter Nagy recently pledged that the United States would intervene with its European allies to accelerate negotiations on a permanent peace deal.

Biya and his Beti Ewondo political elites are still holding strong to their one and indivisible Cameroon doctrine in a country where the economy is on the brink and the politics has evolved from a struggling democracy to a full-blown dictatorship.

Elsewhere, Friday 21st February 2020 was the day set by His Lordship Bishop George Nkuo Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Kumbo as a day of prayer and mourning for those killed in Ngarbuh by French Cameroun army soldiers.

A Requiem Mass celebrated by the Bishop of Kumbo accompanied by his Eminence Christian Cardinal Tumi and a college of priests at Kumbo Cathedral witnessed Catholic Christians, Protestants, and non Christians in and around Kumbo joining the Bishop to pray for the 24 people killed and the many rendered homeless.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai with additional editing from Oke Akombi Ayukepi Akap

When Gladys Mbuya spoke at the African Peer Review Mechanism meeting in Kigali, her voice shook. She described her life as an internally displaced person in the violence ravaging her country, Cameroon. Her pre-conflict status in life stands in sharp contrast.

Mbuya is the Queen Mother of Alatening village, and head of the women’s traditional village council of the village Tekumbeng, a throne inherited from her mother.

The contradictions continue — Mbuya is national president of the International Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA Cameroon) and Vice secretary of the Cameroon Bar Association.

Of the 10 regions making up Cameroon, eight are French speaking and two are English speaking. After the First World War, Cameroon, previously a Germany colony, Kamerun, was given as war spoils to the French and British. The British had northwest region and southwest regions, collectively known as Southern Cameroons. The French had the rest. At independence, Southern Cameroons voted to join francophone Cameroon to become one united country. Since then, the minority Southern Cameroons have been marginalised socially, economically and politically.

Cameroon’s national assembly elections happened last week, for the first time in seven years. A series of controversial decisions saw them moved twice. Paul Biya has ruled Cameroon for 37 years courtesy of a constitutional amendment removing presidential term limits in 2008. The main opposition leader Maurice Kanto who ran for president, subsequently spending nine months in jail in 2018, is abroad.

In 2016, teachers and lawyers in the English-speaking regions started a peaceful protest against the use of French in schools and courts. The government reaction of using lethal force against peaceful protesters created separatists who declared independence and named the Southern Cameroons “Ambazonia.” The government conducted a violent military crackdown and detained separatist leaders.

Mbuya narrowly escaped arrest as the military dragged lawyers and teachers out of homes and taxis. Non-state armed groups and military clashes in her home forced her to seek temporary shelter. War has continued unabated in the Southern Cameroons with an estimated 3,000 lives lost and 700,000 fleeing their homes as internally displaced persons.

A number of leaders arrested include lawyers’ President Agbor Balla, Mimi Mefo, a popular Cameroonian journalist arrested over a Facebook post, and Michele Ndoky an opposition party lawyer who was shot and survived four bullets. Agbor Balla was detained for nine months. Women leaders, Mimi Mefo and Michele Ndoky were eventually released.

In all the above cases, fiery Mbuya appeared as pro-Bono defence counsel, defending the right to freedom of opinion, assembly, association and freedom of peaceful protest. The releases were through presidential pardon, with cases discontinued by the head of state without the courts hearing and handing down judgement.

Women have now organised themselves in conversations in markets and roadsides seeking solutions. Mbuya also leads intercommunity dialogues with women across the divides particularly through radio Buea “Voices for Women.”

The separatists boycotted last week’s elections and government predictably reacted with renewed violence. The separatists abducted English-speaking candidates, saying they do not see themselves in a government carrying out extra judicial killings.

President Biya, recognising the rising power of women, directed electoral positions in his party be split evenly among women and men. His directive to prioritise the young was however met with calls for 87-year-old Biya to lead by example.

The women want mediation more inclusive than the Grand National Dialogue announced by Biya last year. Separatists boycotted the dialogue, demanding release of political prisoners and withdrawal of the military from Ambazonia. The bar council has submitted proposals for peaceful resolution to the Government.

The women want the African Union involved.

Source: The East African

Human Rights Watch (HRW), the global human rights watchdog, has released a report on the ongoing carnage playing out in Cameroon’s two English-speaking regions.

The report holds the country’s security forces responsible for some of the most atrocious human rights crimes taking place in the country’s two English-speaking regions.

Cameroon’s security forces are supposed to protect civilians, but they seem to be departing from their traditional role of protecting and serving the people. Their guns have become toys with which they play. Intimidation has become their hallmark and killing fellow citizens no longer generates guilt.

But the report also points a finger at armed separatist fighters who claim they are fighting for the total liberation of their territory, but have, over the last two years, been engaged in behavior that needs to be punished.

A conflict that started as protests by teachers and lawyers was poorly managed by the government due to arrogance and intransigence. Three years after, killing and kidnapping have become great sports in the Northwest and Southwest regions, with security forces playing an active role in these new activities.  

Below are some of the tales of agony that HRW obtained from victims of the violence that seems to have received the government’s seal of approval.

Violations by Security Forces

Twelve Bali residents told Human Rights Watch that soldiers, including members of the Rapid Intervention Battalion (BIR), and gendarmes began a three-day security operation in their village on January 17. Armed separatists had operated in the area since 2017. Witnesses said that security forces beat and killed at least four civilians, including two men with intellectual disabilities, Julius Ntali, 55, and Mumbat Charlie, 25, who appeared to have been shot, and his body burned as the house was set on fire.

A witness to Ntali’s killing said:

On January 18, there was a gathering in a house in Sang neighborhood for a funeral. I passed by and saw that Julius was there, eating. It was about 3 p.m. when the security forces stormed the area. They shot indiscriminately, and everyone ran away for their lives. Julius didn’t understand what was happening around him and was hit. We only found his body two days later when the area became quieter, since the military had left. His body was in a state of decomposition, but I saw a sign of a bullet in the head.

A witness to Charlie’s killing said:

On January 19, at least 10 BIR soldiers came to Mom neighborhood in Bali, where I live. They shot in the air around and burned the home where Charlie was living. I was in my house. I watched everything from my home, about 30 meters away. When the shooting finished and the burning was over, I went out and found Charlie’s body. He had been shot in the neck and in the head. His body was totally burned.

Several witnesses told Human Rights Watch that the security forces killed at least two other men in Tih neighborhood between January 17 and 20. However, Human Rights Watch was not able to independently verify this information.

Security forces beat at least four women, including a nursing mother with her baby and a 70-year-old woman with a physical disability, in a home in Sang neighborhood, Bali, where they were hiding at about 1:30 p.m. on January 19, during the military operations. One of the victims, a 34-year-old nurse, said:

The soldiers used wooden sticks to beat me and the other women. They asked us where the Amba boys [separatists] were. We said we didn’t know, and they kept hitting us. The beating lasted up to 30 minutes. A soldier slapped a nursing mother in the face. She had a 4-month-old baby with her.”

Soldiers, including members of the BIR, and gendarmes also beat a 46-year-old man in an abandoned school, the Bali Comprehensive High School, in Sang neighborhood on January 19, seriously injuring his face. He said:

I was in front of the Bali Presbyterian Church when a gendarme called me. He was with 30 other gendarmes and soldiers. He confiscated my phone and asked where the separatists were hiding. I said I didn’t know. He acted as if he didn’t believe me. So, the military pulled me and took me on foot to an abandoned school, one kilometer away. While we were walking, the military slapped and kicked me. At the school, they accused me of being an accomplice to the separatists, hit and punched me for about 25 minutes. They hit my nose badly and I bled profusely. I cried until they brought me back to the main road and left me there.

Security forces also burned and looted up to 50 homes in Bali. Witnesses said they believed that the military retaliated against civilians suspected of harboring separatists or supporting the SDF. Human Rights Watch reviewed satellite imagery taken before and after the attack and confirmed the destruction of buildings consistent with witness testimony.

Human Rights Watch also reviewed video footage featuring homes and businesses that were destroyed in Bali. This footage was both gathered from social media platforms and sent directly to Human Rights Watch. Verifying and geolocating these videos corroborated sites of damaged buildings that were consistent with the satellite imagery of those locations and with witness testimony.

A woman who fled to the forest when the security forces approached her neighborhood, Sang, described what she saw from her hiding place:

The military came on January 19 at about 1 p.m. They arrived on foot and started shooting everywhere. I ran away with my four children and hid nearby. I saw how the soldiers burned my home and my workshop; they destroyed everything.

The Bali residents interviewed said that the separatists who had been in town fled well before the soldiers arrived and there was no confrontation between the security forces and the separatists.

A 55-year-old resident of Bali whose home was burned down by the soldiers on January 17 said:

Dozens of Cameroonian soldiers came to Bali with armored cars and trucks. They targeted the homes of SDF leaders and civilians’ homes where they suspected the Amba boys [separatists] were hiding. The military came to punish and scare the population. As the military approached my neighborhood, Paila, I ran away and hid. My home was razed. I counted 28 soldiers burning it and transporting bags of items looted from it, including a TV and food.

The security forces also searched the Bali district hospital on January 19, causing some patients to flee out of fear. A medical staff at the hospital told Human Rights Watch:

I was on duty when six armed gendarmes entered our facility at about 1 p.m. They asked me where we hid and treated the Amba boys [separatists]. I responded that we only had patients. They wanted me to show them all wards. They entered all the units, including the maternity. I was scared of their weapons, and so were the patients, and some panicked and ran away out of fear.

Abuses by Armed Separatists

Kidnapping

On February 2, armed separatists kidnapped Joseph Tarh Pen, a CPDM member running for mayor in Santa, North-West region. In the days after he was kidnapped, a video circulated on social media showing Tarh, stripped naked and in the dirt, while accused of being a traitor. Human Rights Watch spoke with one relative and two friends of Tarh who identified him in the video. They said that the video was filmed after Tarh’s kidnapping in Piyin village, near Santa. Tarh’s relative said that two of Tarh’s brothers – who were contacted by the separatists to arrange a ransom payment – were also kidnapped, on February 3. The two brothers were released on February 8, while Tarh is still held by the separatists at time of writing.

Armed separatists from the group Restoration Forces led by a commander known as “General Man Pass Man” kidnapped the SDF mayor of Babessi, North-West region, along with four council members from the party on January 5, 2020 in Babessi. The Restoration Forces released them on January 22, following a ransom payment of 1,000,000 CFA (US$1,678). Human Rights Watch spoke with three of those abducted. One, a 49-year-old man, said: “They told us that they kidnapped us to prevent us from participating in the elections. When they let us go, they said we will be monitored all the days of our lives.”

The separatists had also kidnapped and tortured the Babessi mayor in June 2019.

In November 2019, the Restoration Forces kidnapped 20 SDF candidates in the town of Jakiri, North-West region. The officials were held in a small house near a separatist camp in Vekovi village. They were released on December 8, after ransom payments believed to be between CFAF 250,000 and CFAF 500,000 ($419-$838) were paid for each abductee.

“It was about 7 p.m. when two Amba boys [separatists] broke into my shop,” a victim from Jakiri said. “They pointed a gun at my forehead and told me to go with them. They told me I was being kidnapped because my name was on the list of those running for local elections.”

Burning of Property

Armed separatists burned down the home of Acha Kennedy, a candidate for the ruling CPDM, in Bamenda, North-West region, on January 12, 2020, and the home of the mayor in Bafut, North-West region, on January 15, witnesses said. A neighbor of Kennedy said:

At around 9:30 p.m. I opened the door and saw five motorbikes going down to the residence of Mr. Acha. I watched closely. They were Amba boys [separatists]. They had their guns and held tires of vehicles in their hands. They set them on fire and threw them on the roof of Acha’s home. That was how the house was set ablaze. We live in fear.

Witnesses said that a group of about 15 armed separatists – from a group known as “Nsei boys” operating in Mbesoh neighborhood, in Bamessing – burned down four homes belonging to two officials in Bamessing, North-West region, on November 20, 2019. One of the homes was used as a private health center.

A witness, the brother of one of the officials, said:

I used my brother’s home as a health center. I was there with a dozen of people waiting for consultations when the separatists came. They had guns, machetes, and knives. Some appeared to be high on drugs. They demanded we leave. Then, they set the home on fire. The roof was burned, as well as all my medical equipment.

Another of the official’s homes was burned on January 23. He said that he had also been threatened for sending his children to school.

A sister of the other official said that the separatists beat her when they burned her sister’s home. “They had tanks of 20 liters each full of petrol and kerosene, which they started pouring around,” she said. “Then, they set the house on fire. I broke into tears, and so two of them started hitting my back, buttocks, and feet using machetes and sticks.”

Obtained from the HRW report.

Following the February 09 Municipal and Legislative elections, an avalanche of calls for political breakthrough in Cameroon have been downloaded from several national and international bodies including the African Union (AU), Human Rights Watch (HRW), the Roman Catholic Church as well as a host of other rights focused institutions.

According to the AU observer mission dispatched to monitor the Cameroon elections, there was massive boycott as many Cameroonians have lost faith in the entire process. Moreover, the boycott launched by the main opposition party, the Cameroon Renaissance Movement (CRM) also worked to the disfavor of the elections. This further compounded by the ongoing conflict in the Anglophone regions which thwarted the process. It was a similar message from the Catholic Church which said something more than just elections can bring stability in Cameroon. According to the President of the Cameroon National Episcopal Council, Mgr Abraham Kome, the turnout was very low. He cited a case in President Biya’s home town of Sangmelima wherein in a polling station of 310 voters, only 85 bothered to take part in the process.

The armed conflict in Anglophone Cameroon also featured in the report of Transparency International (TI) as well as Human Rights Watch (HRW) and a general loss of confidence by citizens in the electoral process in Cameroon. This explains why even in urban metropolis void of any real armed conflict like Bertoua, capital of the East region, the abstention rate, according to the Catholic Church was 70% and in neighbouring Batouri, it was 89%. However, the government has challenged the reports arguing, through Cameroon’s Minister of Interior, Paul Atanga Nji that the reports do not reflect the reality on the ground. The Minister upheld that there was a huge turnout by Cameroonians. “The population in the North West and South West regions turned out massively to exercise their civic duty in all administrative units,” Atanga Nji said.

Amidst the situation

Amidst the current insecurity, violent conflict, voter apathy, elections boycott, disenfranchisement in Cameroon are three basic school of thoughts with each holding firm to an unshakable position characteristic of an extremist confluence. Proponents of the school of thoughts hold firm to their position and belief it is the best remedy for a country challenged at all fronts. In the opinion of the Director of the Central African Network of Human Rights Defenders known by its French acronym as REDHAC, Cameroon is challenged at all fronts and the ruling elites need to make some concessions. “The country is very sick at all levels,” Maximilienne Ngo Mbe said.

With each school of thought blaming the other for the current situation, it becomes a huge challenge finding a middle belt wherein all can come in. At the level of the government, the insecurity, violence especially in the Anglophone regions is caused by “enemies of peace.” They argue that before the uprising the country was enjoying “peace,” a “peace” which the retired Archbishop of Douala, Cameroon’s biggest town, Cardinal Christian Tumi described as “negative peace” because of the social inequality the ruling elites have subjected a greater part of the population and especially the minority Anglophones.

In the opinion of politicians including President Biya’s runner-up at the October 2018 election, Professor Maurice Kamto of the CRM party, they orchestrated a boycott because one part of the country (Anglophone regions) is in war and elections cannot be free and fair. They also argue that the electoral code which has been a subject of controversy in previous elections must be revised to provide equal opportunity to all, not just ruling party candidates.

On the part of the separatists, the elections are “foreign” to their land as there is no treaty in international law or at the level of the United Nations binding the Former British Territory (Anglophone Cameroon) and the Republic of Cameroun (French). According to them, the marriage between the two Cameroons in 1961 was an annexation scheme which they want to break. They hold firm to their position and argue that only a negotiated settlement would stop their arms struggle. In a recent outing on his Facebook page, Dr Ayaba Cho Lucas, one of the main leaders of the armed Anglophone nationalism advocating for a separate state called Ambazonia has urged his counterparts to arm what he called ground zero until the central government negotiates. Rather, the government has been slow to negotiate or address the underlying causes but has also upheld the extremist vision of peace by non-peaceful means. In his traditional end of year speech on December 31, 2019, President Paul Biya called on separatists to lay down arms or be crushed by the Cameroon defense forces. All these positions have ensured that there is violence, bloodshed and voter apathy not just in the Anglophone regions but the entire country before, during and possible after if sustainable peace is not attained.

Before, During, After Elections

Cameroonians went to the polls in the context of growing insecurity and conflict which has affected at least six out of its ten regions. The East is heavily militarized because of the incursions of rebels of the Central Africa Republic (CAR), while the North is embedded in the Boko Haram conflict, which after experiencing a lull, has, in recent times, taking a more ferocious mood with regular attacks and killings. The Adamawa region only enjoyed a respite of peace in recent times thanks to the dispatching of hundreds of elite Gendarmes to counteract the activities of kidnappers.

However, the greatest challenge has come from the two Anglophone regions in the West where separatists have been fighting against state security forces for three years. The state’s authority in those areas has been reduced to some rare urban metropolis with the few administrators still present under heavy military companion. In the October 2018 presidential election, the turnout in some of these areas was as low as 5% and in other cases entire population had fled because of the violence.

In its analysis of the situation, HRW said there was violence before, during the elections and possible after the election as it fears for the safety of those elected. This violence was orchestrated by both separatist fighters and government soldiers. The rights organization estimated that separatists kidnapped about 100 persons, mostly aspiring MPs and Municipal Councils, mainly from the opposition Social Democratic Front (SDF). At least three offices of Elections Cameroon (ELECAM), the elections management body were burnt down in Misaje on January 07, and Babessi on January 16 in the North West region. In the same region, a local Post Office in Bafut which was housing electoral materials was also burned down. In the South West region, ELECAM’s offices in Tombel were set ablaze on February 02. Homes belonging to government officials and some opposition party candidates were also destroyed.

Rather than protecting the population, HRW argued that government forces also worsened the situation by committing acts of human rights violation. Between January 17 and 20, security forces entered Bali, a locality in the North West region destroying over 50 homes and killing several individuals. All these according to the group accounted for the massive boycott in the elections especially as separatists who controlled most of these areas had called for massive boycott coupled with similar boycotts from some opposition parties including the Kamto’s CRM and the Cameroon Peoples’ Party (CPP) of Kah Walla among others.

The war has crippled the country’s economy as the two Anglophone regions are harbingers of much of the country’s wealth including crude oil, cocoa, coffee, banana, tea, and other cash crops. The largest agro-industrial complex, the Cameroon Development Corporation (CDC) which is the second largest employer after the state is at the brink of collapsing because of the war. This has pushed the government into a borrowing spree to finance most projects while some are merely abandoned because of lack of funds.

Even though regime faithful paint a favourable socio-political climate, the recent elections have proving that Cameroon needs a total overhaul of its electoral law, constitution and strong laws that would give more powers to the local tax payers. However, such a revision would still leave one part of the population, the English speakers disenfranchised as the conditions on the ground for them goes beyond the electoral code, but the transformation of the conflict into gains. Moving forward with elections in the present context has further strengthened the argument of separatists and instead put the lives of civilians.

Force has not solved the equation after three years and not even the country’s elite forces have been able to outsmart civilians sometimes holding just rifles. While addressing the American Parliament in November 2019 on the situation in Cameroon, the Deputy Secretary of State in charge of African Affairs said President Paul Biya has been “ill-advised” to use military options which cannot produce any substantial results. “You can’t wipe out a thought militarily,” Tibor Nagy said. He went further to state that the inability of the Cameroon government to enter into genuine negotiations with separatists further radicalizes many more to consider that only an armed struggle would answer the equation. In the inability to confab with separatists for the past three years, only unbearable pressure by the international community can cause the government to make this bold step and save what is still left. The growing dissatisfaction among the majority Francophones as expressed in the low turnout in the election is an indication that Cameroon in general is at the brink of a total collapse and possible repercussions going far beyond its border. Such a breakdown would for example fasten the position of Boko Haram extremists in the North and other armed movements.

Source: The Organisation for World Peace