The Kill Team: How Francophone Soldiers are Murdering Innocent Southern Cameroons Civilians ⁰

French Cameroun army commanders have started ordering the execution of some internally displaced persons arrested in Belo, Muyenge and Lebialem. The UN says some 160,000 Southern Cameroonians displaced as a result of the crisis are stranded in the bushes and along the border with Nigeria. Reports by the United Nations Office in Yaoundé said last week that human rights groups have not been able to assess the situation in Belo, Lebialem, Kwa Kwa and Muyenge.

Francophone administrative officials in Southern Cameroons are using state radio and television to make repeated announcements that Southern Cameroonians should move somewhere else or face a military onslaught.  Some 40,000 Southern Cameroonians, mostly women and children, have fled widespread violence in the territory now known as the Federal Republic of Ambazonia and taken shelter in Nigeria.

The French Cameroun military has not come under any intense criticism since its commander-in-chief President Biya launched a deadly crackdown against the English speaking minority in West Cameroon. Hundreds of Southern Cameroonians have been killed in the ongoing crackdown.

Thousands who have fled to Nigeria have brought with them horrifying accounts of massacres, rape, and arson by Cameroon government’s military forces and armed groups created by the Minister of Territorial Administration, Paul Atanga Nji. The US ambassador to Cameroon, Peter Barlerin has described the violence against Southern Cameroonians as targeted killings and possibly genocide.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai with files from Sama Ernest