13, December 2019
Bishop of Bafang condemns deteriorating human rights situation in Cameroon 0
Cameroon’s leading prelate has condemned the “deteriorating” human rights situation in the African country.
Speaking during a Dec. 10 workshop on the state of human rights in Cameroon, Bishop Abraham Kome of Bafang, the president of the bishops’ conference, said freedom of political expression has been significantly limited.
“We have seen the difficulty with which political parties have to manifest. We see – and I say this with a lot of emotion – when we visit our country’s prisons, what we see there is poor infrastructure, poor treatment of inmates, and overcrowding in prison cells. When one sees that, one can only affirm, if one has to speak the truth, that human rights have deteriorated in our country,” he said.
The bishop’s comments came just days after the country’s National Commission on Human Rights and Freedoms published its 2018 human rights report in Cameroon.
The report documented arbitrary killings, forced disappearances, and a crackdown on political freedom; as well as noting the limited access to justice for aggrieved persons.
Currently, the government is fighting two major internal conflicts: The first against separatists in the country’s Anglophone regions, and the second against Boko Haram militants in the north.
The report said that in these regions, human rights have been grossly violated, both by insurgents and the country’s military.
“The climate of insecurity degenerated into allegations of violations of the right to life and to physical and moral integrity of persons and property; violations of the right to education, health, private property and access to administrative services and to a fair trial of suspects and the deplorable detention conditions,” the report states.
It further indicated that between January and December 2018, “close to 200 civilians were killed by separatists and government soldiers in the Anglophone regions alone.”
The war that started in 2016 as a protest by Anglophone lawyers and teachers over attempts to destroy the education and common law systems practiced in English speaking regions quickly degenerated into an armed rebellion with many English speakers demanding for outright independence.
The Chairman of the National Commission on Human Rights and Freedoms, Chemuta Divine Banda, said Cameroon’s separatist war was fast becoming an enterprise, “with war lords stepping into the picture to make benefits through kidnappings and ransom taking.”
“There are people who don’t want this conflict to end,” he told Crux.
The report speaks broadly about poor prison conditions, limited access to justice for accused persons, the torching of schools that has forced about 800,000 children out of education, as well as attempts by the government to limit access to freedom of speech and assembly.
The country has come under increasing scrutiny by the international community, with Human Rights Watch stating in its 2018 report that in its fight against separatists in the country’s English speaking North West and South West regions, “government security forces have committed extrajudicial executions, burned property, carried out arbitrary arrests, and tortured detainees.”
Even the Trump administration has weighed in with a damning report on Cameroon’s human rights record.
Electoral code can’t guarantee free and fair elections
In his remarks, Kome also took aim at Cameroon’s electoral code with just weeks until the next legislative and municipal elections in Cameroon and called for its revision.
“The electoral code does not guarantee the transparency and authenticity of electoral results,” the bishop said.
Kome said a revision of the code was needed to “guarantee the peoples’ human right to freely choose the leaders they want.”
The opposition has consistently called for the introduction of a single ballot, the redistribution of electoral constituencies, as well as the complete computerization of the electoral process.
The secretary general of the opposition Social Democratic Front said his party will introduce legislation on the revision of the electoral code during the ongoing parliamentary session. It’s a similar stance taken by the party of Maurice Kamto who claims he won the last presidential election in Cameroon.
Cameroonians will go to the polls February 9 to elect municipal offices and members of the national legislature, but some observers say that election could be a recipe for violence especially in Cameroon’s English-speaking regions.
Source: Crux
18, December 2019
French Cameroun: Distraught Christian community “laments” as Boko Haram violence consumes Far North Cameroon 0
A distraught community is mourning and singing a new shared “lament” after Boko Haram violence claimed at least seven lives including Pastor David Mokoni and several Christian young people, in the latest spate of merciless Boko Haram attacks in Far North Cameroon.
A local Christian leader says the repeated attacks in Moskota village over the last month have left some families in the community in the worst state of extreme psychological distress he has ever seen.
The severe violence led a young Christian man to pen a lament describing the “ghost villages and ransacked shops” and asking, “And when a pastor falls in Africa doesn’t that mean anything?” All in the district are singing the song as they try to come to terms with their terrible suffering.
“Moskota village has become the scene of the agonies of Boko Haram.
Only the dead, only the displaced;
Only ghost villages, shops ransacked and emptied;
Only health centres plundered and looted;
Only cattle taken away; empty buildings.
Boko Haram struck – our founder Pastor Mokoni paid the price.
And when a pastor falls in Africa doesn’t that mean anything?
Only … emptiness.”
Seven people were killed and 21 children and young adults were kidnapped in a series of attacks, which came just a month after a spate of similar atrocities targeted mainly-Christian villages.
At least 300 homes were looted and more than 140 oxen stolen. Vital crops such as millet, peanuts and cotton were destroyed and left to rot.
The attacks in Mayo Sava district began on 1 December when gunmen opened fire on mourners at a funeral in Kotserehé, forcing them to flee. An eyewitness said, “It was a total rout … women have fled without being able to take their children with them.” The attack left four Christians dead and three wounded. The witness added, “A place of mourning has turned into a theatre of war that has ended in carnage.”
The following night, an attack on Zangola village left three dead and caused untold destruction. With food, clothing and livelihoods taken, the defenceless people “had only their eyes to cry” said a local contact.
In a third attack, the village of Mbreche was targeted at around 2 a.m. on 5 December. Militants searched from house to house and kidnapped 21 young people – nine girls and twelve boys, aged between 12 and 21. Four of the young people, including a girl aged 13, managed to escape.
It is thought that those abducted will be forced to become Boko Haram “soldiers” and fight on behalf of the extremists. Only weeks earlier, on 19 November, a 12-year-old Christian boy was hacked to death for resisting militants’ attempt to abduct him as a “child soldier” in Tourou district.
Boko Haram often strikes in the middle of the night in gangs of up to 200 militants and lays waste to villages. By now, most villagers, especially men and young people, no longer go to bed in their homes but “hide out” in the mountains. Those with motorbikes or bicycles travel to nearby towns to spend the night in greater safety there. Some people no longer really sleep at all, said our contact.
Barnabas Fund