Cameroon said Tuesday that it firmly opposed what it called “bias” report by the U.S.-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) on atrocities in its war-torn English-speaking regions.

The HRW report published on March 28 blamed government forces for killing “scores of civilians”, using indiscriminate force, and torching “hundreds of homes” over the past six months.

“The government of Cameroon categorically rejects these allegations against its professional forces who are fighting to preserve the territorial integrity of the country,” Cameroon’s Minister of Communication and government spokesman, Emmanuel Rene Sadi told a press conference here.

The minister accused the HRW of “obvious bias in favor of armed gangs.” He said Cameroon was “really surprised” that the report failed to put stress on kidnappings, closure of schools, burning of hospitals and “other atrocities” committed by armed separatists.

Armed separatists fighting for the “independence” of the two Anglophone regions in Cameroon have been clashing with government forces since November 2017.

The United Nations estimates that at least 430,000 people have been displaced internally by the conflict.

Source: Xinhuanet

The residence of the mayor of the Mamfe Rural Council, Hon. Ayuk John Takunchong was attacked by armed Southern Cameroons militants at exactly 1:45 am on Wednesday. The mayor and his two kids were home at the time of the attack carried out by an unidentified group operating deep within the Manyu County.

Speaking to Cameroon Concord News, Mayor Takunchong said armed Ambazonia militants stormed his residence and burnt all his cars before running away towards unknown destinations. The attack is the second against a senior Manyu CPDM politician after that of Minister Victor Mengot as the Ambazonia group targeted the Mamfe mayor, Bishop Andrew Nkea and Rev Father Tabeson.

A total of 170 Southern Cameroons civilians were killed recently by Cameroon government forces in the Northern Zone, while several hundred were injured according to a report by the Human Rights Watch.

Manyu Odeshi Warriors continue to launch sporadic attacks across Cameroon government troops and pro Biya regime establishments in Manyu. Cameroon government Security reports indicate that Southern Cameroons group still poses threat against stability in the country. The Manyu Warriors still has dormant cells in Mamfe through which it carries out attacks, across the county like it used to do when the crisis started some three years ago.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Southern Cameroons fighters have reportedly blocked a newly built road linking the capital of the Menchum County to Bamenda, Cameroon Intelligence Report has learnt, while CRTV Bamenda reported that troops loyal to the Biya regime in Yaoundé secured a strategic highway between Batibo and Mamfe, the chief town in the Manyu County.

In the Northern Zone of Southern Cameroons, Ambazonia Restoration Forces took over three Cameroon government gendarmerie posts on the truck A road that serves as an alternate route into Wum via Fundong after days of fighting. The Rapid Intervention Battalion built the bypass after Southern Cameroons Self Defense forces cut off the original main route to Menchum.

Meanwhile, the Francophone dominated army say they have been able to secure the highway linking Muyuka and Kumba.  The reports came as CEMAC nations hinted that some of the challenges confronting France-Afrique of which CEMAC is the heart-beat, included the growing debate on colonial security, economic and cultural pacts, the CFA Franc, the Multinational war against Boko Haram, Maritime Security in the Gulf of Guinea, the instability in CAR and the DRC Congo.  The sick French Cameroun despot with a failing memory was chosen recently to lead the group.

The United States so far has balked at the Ambazonia Diaspora sending weapons to the Southern Cameroons Restoration Forces, fearing the arms could end up in the hands of extremists. Over 430,000 have fled in response to the violence. The violence is also compounding poverty in the country, as farmers have been forced to abandon their crops and exports are in decline.

As a result of the violence, earlier this week, the U.S. placed sanctions on over 20 military personnel, civilian actors, and government ministers in Cameroon. Aid programs and military training by the U.S. have been withdrawn. France has kept the faith in the 86 years old Biya supplying his regime with guns.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

The Southern Cameroons Liberation Council (SCLC) condemns, in the strongest terms, the reported kidnapping of an unknown number of civilians in the Republic of Ambazonia, formerly the North West and South West Regions of Cameroon.

The victims include a former Bar Association president and former presidential candidate, Barrister Akere Muna, and an unknown number of people who were traveling in his convoy in the Northern Zone of Ambazonia.

The SCLC calls for the immediate and unconditional release of all those kidnapped and points an accusing finger at the regime of President Paul Biya for orchestrating the crime.

Ambazonian Restoration Forces operating in the Northern Zone, including the commander in charge of Ambazonian self-defense forces in the area, have denied involvement. One General issued an audio press release Tuesday, denying responsibility for the crime. In the audio, the commander prays that no harm be done to the victims if they are in the keeping of any Ambazonian forces; that no ransom be accepted and that victims be released if their safety cannot be guaranteed.

The SCLC also accuses thousands of pro-regime militia operating in Ambazonia who have specialized in hostage taking for ransom. Regime armed and security forces have also carried out abductions, kidnappings, deportations to jails outside Ambazonia, and raids on UN-managed refugee camps.

Massacres, targeted killings, extrajudicial executions are among a long line of desperate crimes by regime forces aimed at convincing the international community that the pro-independence campaign is a terrorist organization.

In October, November and December 2018 and in March 2019, masked gunmen, who were later revealed to be soldiers of the regime, kidnapped students in Bafut and Bamenda, in the Northern Zone, and in Kumba and Buea, in the Southern Zone.

In the November 2018 kidnapping of 81 students and their teachers in Bamenda, the regime appeared to have been seeking to generate the global outrage which followed the kidnappings, in April 2014 by Boko Haram, of 276 Chibok Girls in Nigeria’s Borno State. The lead kidnapper in that case was later positively identified as Armel Rostand Mveng, an officer in the Cameroonian army.

The SCLC reiterates that the only terrorists in the Cameroons are Biya’s colonial forces. After declaring war on Ambazonia on 30 November 2017, the regime issued radio announcements, promising to commit war crime. It ordered civilians to vacate villages suspected of hosting Ambazonian fighters, known to the regime as “rats”, “dogs”, “terrorists” and “secessionists”.

More than 10,000 civilians have been killed so far. Over a million Ambazonians now live in the forests, fleeing the colonial forces which have looted and razed nearly 200 villages.

The Francophone dominated army deployed to Southern Cameroons have reportedly arrested scores of Ambazonian civilians in Mutengene in the Fako County. Cameroon Concord News understands that the arrests were made on Monday.

The Yaounde regime ordered the Rapid Intervention Battalion stationed at the police school in Mutengene to storm the locality in a bid to counter ghost town operations decreed by the Southern Cameroons Interim Government.  

Our correspondent in Victoria who contributed to this report observed that a handful of those arrested were later on released while several others were ferried to Buea in military trucks. Troops loyal to the Francophone Beti Ewondo regime in Yaounde have carried out numerous raids in Mutengene ever since the beginning of the crisis in Southern Cameroons.

By Sama Ernest