Rape in Southern Cameroons War and La Republique du Cameroun’s tradition of impunity ⁰

Rape has successfully been mischaracterized and dismissed by President Biya and his top military leaders in Yaoundé for more than three decades and in the last four years; the Biya Francophone Beti Ewondo regime has accepted rape precisely because it is so commonplace in Southern Cameroons.

Ever since President Paul Biya declared the war against the English speaking minority in Southern Cameroons, numerous reports of rape by Francophone soldiers from the renowned Human Rights Watch have been dismissed as a kind of propaganda coming from the Ambazonia Interim Government and the Southern Cameroons diaspora.

Responding to reports of widespread rape of women and teenage girls in Southern Cameroons, the Biya administration has either denied that the rapes are occurring or has blamed the Southern Cameroons victims for not cooperating with Cameroon government army soldiers.

To be sure, Paul Atanga Nji Minister of Territorial Administration who himself hails from British Southern Cameroons territory noted in a conversation with our undercover reporter that the rape allegations were made by the people of Southern Cameroons solely to attract sympathy and give the Biya government negative publicity.

A Francophone army general from Beti extraction and married to three wives said during a security briefing recently in Yaoundé that Cameroon government soldier conducting an operation at the dead of night in the North West and South West is unlikely to think of rape when he is not even certain if he will return alive as if soldiers that carryout rape must do so operating under safe conditions.

Francophone soldiers are motivated to rape precisely because rape serves the strategic interests of the Biya Francophone regime.

Several Southern Cameroons women are now openly recalling harrowing tales of sexual abuse in Bui, Menchum, Mezam, Ngoketunjia, Ndian, Kupe Munenguba, Meme, Manyu, Fako and Donga Matung counties.

For many, their bodies are still trembling while narrating what the Francophone soldiers did to them. Cameroon Intelligence Report gathered from some of the women that at every moment, they were humiliated before the extreme sexual act.

Many English speaking Cameroonian women and teenage girls are now speaking of sexual abuse, ranging from exposition to extreme cavity searches. A lady in Weh-a locality not too far away from Wum, the chief town in the Menchum County said that she was subjected to sexual harassment for four days when Francophone soldiers stationed in Wum raided her village and she now has HIV.

In Etoko village in Manyu where two Francophone soldiers reportedly rape a 17 year old girl, she told a visiting Roman Catholic priest that “When I refused to take my kaba off, the two soldiers attacked me and ruptured my pants.”

Sexual abuses in Southern Cameroons are part of an organized Biya regime policy to infuse humiliation and torture against all Southern Cameroons families and detainees especially against women and children.

In French Cameroun detention centers such as the Kondengui High Security Prison in Yaoundé and the New Bell Prison in Douala, Francophone prison authorities have made sexual harassment a tool to put pressure on prisoners especially in the interrogation sessions. Many young women and girls in Southern Cameroons are now highly stressed and have lost their consciousness several times and many are also struggling to cope with the HIV virus.

In Kumba, a Francophone soldier deployed to Fiango who wanted sex with a teenage girl reportedly accused her of having a sexual relationship with the Senior Divisional Officer for Meme.

A very pretty GHS Mundemba female student was subjected to sexual harassment in an armored vehicle transfer between Mundemba and Ekondo Titi.

Our chief correspondent in Bamenda hinted that most Southern Cameroons women avoid talking about rape experiences with Francophone soldiers out of the fear of stigma, taking into consideration that the Ambazonia culture treats sex as a shame.

By Isong Asu in London