As more and more civilians have been killed by the Cameroon government of Paul Biya, absentee president for 37 years, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has been silent.

Inner City Press was informed by sources in Guterres’ own 38th floor office that Guterres had made a deal with Biya’s UN Ambassador Tommo Monthe as chair of the UN Budget Committee for administrative favors in exchange for silence on the slaughter or “subduing” of the Anglophone minority.

When Inner City Press asked about it, Guterres used UN Security to rough up Inner City Press right after it interviewed Monthe, and to ban it from entering the UN, 595 days now.   UN “Human Rights” Commission Michele Bachelet as she came into the job picked by Guterres was contacted by Inner City Press  about Biya’s killing spree in Cameroon and relatedly about Guterres’ ban on Inner City Press, has done little to nothing on either.

 In her September 2019 speech name-checking 35 countries, Bachelet did not even mention the slaughter in Cameroon, here. In June 2019, Biya’s government praised Bachelet.

On February 16, 2020 Inner City Press from its sources in Cameroon reported on the killing of more than two dozen civilians including children in Ngar in NW Cameroon.

Before 10 am on February 17 Inner City Press in writing asked Guterres, his spokespeople Stephane Dujarric and Eri Kaneko about the killings. 

There was no answer, and with Dujarric on vacation in Orlando, Florida, Eri Kaneko fielded only two questions at a ten minute long noon briefing on February 17 that Inner City Press was banned from entering and asking at. 

Now on February 18, not Bachelet but her spokesman who has refused countless written questions from Inner City Press, about Cameroon and Yemen and Sri Lanka and Honduras, to name a few, has belatedly issued a statement which reminds that Bachelet’s wan visit to Cameroon “welcomed” Biya’s efforts:

 “The attack on 14 February on a village in Cameroon that left 23 people dead, the majority of them children, is a shocking episode in the ongoing crisis that has afflicted the country’s North-West and South-West regions for the past three years.     We note that the Cameroon Government announced on 17 February that there would be an investigation into the killings and that the findings would be made public. We urge the authorities to ensure that the investigation is independent, impartial and thorough, and that those responsible are held fully to account.     Witnesses said some 40 armed men, including members of the security and defence forces, attacked the village of Ngarbuh, in the department of Donga Mantung in North-West Cameroon, opening fire on people and burning down houses.     The authorities said defence forces and gendarmes came under attack from people inside the village with the exchange of shots igniting a fire that affected several dwellings.     According to information from UN colleagues on the ground, among the 23 people killed were 15 children, nine of whom were under the age of five. The victims also included two pregnant women, one of whom died of her injuries in hospital.     This attack is the latest deadly incident in Cameroon’s North-West and South-West regions where hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced by clashes between security and defence forces and armed separatist groups.     We call on the Government to ensure that the security forces abide by applicable international law norms standards during the conduct of their operations. We similarly remind armed separatist groups of their responsibilities under international law and call on all parties to refrain from deliberate attacks on civilians.     The UN Human Rights Office has been following developments in the North-West and South-West regions as an already tense situation worsened ahead of parliamentary and municipal elections held on 9 February.     The Government deployed some 700 additional troops in the North-West and South-West where armed separatists reportedly kidnapped dozens of candidates, most from the Social Democratic Front which is one of the country’s biggest opposition parties. Most of the candidates were subsequently released. The UN Human Rights Office also received information that voting centres and the houses of those involved in the election campaign were attacked by separatists.     In May 2019, at the end of a visit to Cameroon, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet welcomed the Cameroon Government’s openness to work with the UN Human Rights Office, and the rest of the UN, to seek solutions to the major human rights and humanitarian crises in the country.     In light of the latest violence, we urge the Government of Cameroon to take concrete steps to implement recommendations made last year by the UN Human Rights Office. We reiterate our readiness to help the Government to protect the human rights of people all across Cameroon.”

Yeah right, UN Human Rights – it’s become an oxymoron, and Bachelet’s and Rupert Colville’s collusion even with outright censorship in UNHQ is a telling and indelible example. They did nothing, and said nothing, as Inner City Press was banned even from their “Human Rights Day” event, here.

Past 5 pm on February 17 from inside the corrupt UN headquarters, this: “The Secretary-General is deeply concerned over reports about the killing of civilians, including children, in an attack on the village of Ngarbuh in the North-West Region of Cameroon on 14 February.  He extends his deepest condolences to the families and calls on the Government of Cameroon to conduct an investigation and to ensure that those responsible are held accountable.   

The Secretary-General calls on armed actors to refrain from attacks against civilians and to respect international humanitarian and international human rights law. He reiterates the readiness of the United Nations to work with all stakeholders towards a political solution to the crisis in the North-West and South-West Regions of Cameroon through meaningful dialogue.     Stéphane Dujarric, Spokesman for the Secretary-General  New York, 17 February 2020.”

It is a fraud. This is Guterres’ genocide

Culled from Inner City Press

The pressure on the Yaounde government has continued to increase as the United Nations and the USA call for an independent investigation into the Yaounde government’s barbaric acts that resulted in the deaths of some 40 civilians, with most of them being children and pregnant women.

On Tuesday, February 18, 2020, the United Nations issued a statement calling for a thorough and objective investigation into the Ngarbuh killings that have shocked the world and proven how barbaric and inhuman the Biya regime is.

Also calling for an independent investigation is the United States Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, Tibor Nagy, who did not mince his word.

He condemned the Ngarbuh massacre and urged the Biya government to conduct an “independent investigation”.

“We condemn the killings of civilians in Ngarbu, NW Region of Cameroon, and offer condolences to the victims’ families. We call on the government to authorize an independent investigation, ensure safety of witnesses, and bring perpetrators to justice,” he said, adding that “the violence must stop”.

By James Nkongho in Yaounde

The Ngarbuh Massacre and a call for UN Fact-Finding Mission on Ambaziona

Since declaring war against the people of Ambazonia in November 2017, President Paul Biya of French Cameroun has overseen the brutal killings of over 10,000 civilians and the destruction of more than 280 towns and villages by soldiers loyal to him. Over 3,000 innocent Ambazonians remain in illegal detention without access to legal representation and over 1.5 million have been internally and externally displaced. 

 On Friday 14th February 2020, at about 4:00 West African Time (WAT), French Cameroon soldiers attacked sleeping children and pregnant women in the village of Ngarbuh, Donga Mantung County in the Northern Zone of Ambazonia, brutally killing 35 of them (several women and children are still missing) and burning down their homes. Among the victims found so far are 14 children, 11 of whom are girls and 9 under the age of 5, and 2 pregnant women. A third pregnant woman who survived the attack but lost her baby is in critical condition at a local hospital.

 We strongly condemn these acts of barbarity, which have become commonplace in this genocidal war that French Cameroun is waging against the people of Ambazonia. It is particularly disturbing that French Cameroun, being a signatory to many international conventions that are meant to protect human rights, is determinedly persecuting with impunity a genocidal campaign in Ambazonia while the rest of the world looks on with indifference.

 For 58 years, French Cameroun has pursued a policy of socio-political and cultural domination, assimilation and annihilation of the people of Ambazonia. This agenda was ideologically birthed and has been unconditionally sponsored by France for her own imperialistic objectives. The time has come for France to live up to its international obligations to protect life and uphold human rights and dignity. It is time for France to recognise that the life of an Ambazonian is as valuable as that of any French citizen. France must recognise that liberty, equality and fraternity are human values, not just French values, and that Ambazonians are human beings too.

 We, the people of Ambazonia are peace-loving. We are opposed to war and we are also opposed neo-colonial influences in all its forms. We are the sole owners of our land and its resources. We are proud of our cultural heritage and will not tolerate any attempts by anyone, whoever they may be, to assimilate and destroy this heritage. We are a progressive and forward-looking people and we are going to be the sole determiners of our destiny. 

To Ambazonians all over the world, this yet another senseless and heartless attack on innocent babies and pregnant mothers reminds us of the depravity of the enemy we face. An enemy that is neither guided by any moral compass nor inhibited by legal injunctions.  An enemy that will spare no resource or effort to continue their brutal and vicious economic exploitation of our land and its natural waelth. This is the true face of the enemy who seeks to make himself lord over us. The same enemy who want us to entrust our lives and destiny, and those of our children and grandchildren, into its cold hands.

 This travesty of reason and justice cannot be allowed to continue uninhibited. Even if the rest of the world stands by and watch, we Ambazonians do not have the luxury to be indifferent. If we must defeat this enemy, we must also spare no resources or effort at driving them out of our territory. We must all stand up with the strong and resilient people of Ngarbuh, and the suffering masses of Ambazonians at home and elsewhere. The time has come for us to unite and rededicate ourselves to funding our restoration project. Buy your Amba Freedom Bonds now and give us the means to protect our vulnerable civilians in our march to freedom.

 We have heard calls for French Cameroonians residing in Ambazonia to leave immediately or face mob justice. The Ambazonian Interim Government under the leadership of Sisiku Julius AyukTabe categorically rejects such sentiments. We shall not fight evil with evil as this does not represent the ethos of our nation. We call on all Ambazonians to exercise restraint in the midst of these provocations. The Ambazonia we plan to build will be an open society founded on the rule of law. We counsel all within our boarders to respect the rights and liberties of all aliens living in Ambazonia.

 We call on the United Nations to immediately commission a fact-finding mission on Ambazonia to probe the Ngarbuh and other massacres, which constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity. The recent call by the United Nations for the government of French Cameroun to investigate the Ngarbuh killings defies logic as that government cannot be trusted to unbiasedly investigate itself. The international community must pressure French Cameroun to immediately end all its genocidal operations in Ambazonia and withdraw its armies of occupation. We are still open to genuine negotiations to bring about a peaceful resolution of this crisis.

 Thank you.

 Dabney Yerima

 Vice-President

 Federal Republic of Ambazonia

The UN called on Cameroon Tuesday to conduct an independent investigation into the “shocking” killing of 23 villagers in a troubled English-speaking region and to ensure the perpetrators be held accountable.

Citing information from UN colleagues on the ground, the UN rights office said that two pregnant women and 15 children — nine of them under the age of five — were among those killed in Friday’s attack, which opposition parties blamed on members of the armed forces.

“We urge the authorities to ensure that the investigation is independent, impartial and thorough, and that those responsible are held fully to account,” it said in a statement.

The UN had previously put the toll from Friday’s attack at up to 22, but Tuesday’s statement said 23 people had died in the “shocking episode”.

Witnesses had told the UN that around 40 armed men, including members of the security and defence forces, had attacked the village in Cameroon’s Northwest Region — one of two English-speaking regions grappling with separatist violence since October 2017.

According to the witness testimony, the attack saw the men “opening fire on people and burning down houses”, the rights office said.

Cameroon’s army on Monday denied charges that members of the armed forces were responsible for the deaths in the Ngarbuh district of Ntumbo village, describing the event as “quite simply an unfortunate accident, the collateral result of security operations in the region”.

The authorities said people inside the village had attacked security forces “with the exchange of shots igniting a fire that affected several dwellings”, according to the UN statement.

Violence in anglophone regions

The tragedy marks only the latest deadly incident in the two conflict-plagued English-speaking regions — the southwest and northwest — where more than 3,000 people have died and at least 700,000 have fled their homes in the past two and a half years.

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

Years of grievances at perceived discrimination snowballed into a declaration of independence in October 2017 and a government crackdown.

“We call on the Government to ensure that the security forces abide by applicable international law norms standards during the conduct of their operations,” Tuesday’s statement said.

“We similarly remind armed separatist groups of their responsibilities under international law and call on all parties to refrain from deliberate attacks on civilians,” it added.

The UN rights office said the already tense situation in Cameroon’s anglophone regions had worsened ahead of this month’s parliamentary and municipal elections.

“The Government deployed some 700 additional troops in the North-West and South-West where armed separatists reportedly kidnapped dozens of candidates, most from the Social Democratic Front which is one of the country’s biggest opposition parties,” the UN said.

While most of the candidates had since been released, the UN said it had also received information that voting centres and the homes of those involved in the election campaign had been attacked by separatists.

Source: AFP