HRW accuses English-speaking separatists in Cameroon of “serious human rights violations”

To not miss any African news, subscribe to the newsletter of the World Africa from this link. Every Saturday at 6 a.m., find a week of news and debates covered by the editorial staff of the World Africa.

A Cameroonian security force patrol in Limbé, in the English-speaking region, in January 2021.

The NGO Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Monday (June 27) accused rebels in the English-speaking regions of Cameroon, where a deadly conflict pits armed separatist groups against the security forces, of committing “serious human rights violations”.

“Since January 2022, armed separatist fighters have killed at least seven people, injured six others, raped a girl and committed other serious human rights violations”assured the NGO in a report, pointing to a “context of resurgence of violence”.

Read also In Cameroon, the English-speaking regions “remain locked in a cycle of deadly violence”

The North-West and South-West regions have been the scene for five years of a deadly conflict between armed groups demanding the independence of a state they call the“Ambazonia” and security forces massively deployed by the power of President Paul Biya, 89, who has ruled Cameroon with an iron fist for nearly 40 years.

Part of the Anglophone population feels ostracized by Francophones. The conflict has killed more than 6,000 people since the end of 2016 and forced more than a million people to move, according to the NGO International Crisis Group (ICG).

Village burnings, murders, torture

The rebels, like the soldiers and the police, are regularly accused by international NGOs and the UN of committing abuses and crimes against civilians. Certain armed separatist groups regularly attack schools which they accuse of teaching in French and kidnap or kill civil servants whom they accuse of “collaborate” with the central power of Yaoundé.

According to Unicef, in 2019, some 850,000 children were deprived of school in the two English-speaking regions. The separatists “target civilians who do not heed their calls to boycott schools” and “trampling on the fundamental rights of an already terrorized civilian population”according to HRW.

Read also In English-speaking Cameroon, the civil war grips humanitarian workers

On June 10, suspected rebels set fire to a hospital in Mamfe, in the South West, depriving 85,000 people of access to healthcare. “Government forces have also committed human rights abuses, including burning villages (…)killings, torture, ill-treatment, incommunicado detention and rape of civilians”, says HRW. In early June, nine civilians, including a baby, were killed by soldiers in the North West, the army recognizing a “disproportionate reaction” of his men.

The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) placed English-speaking Cameroon third on its list of ten crises in early June. “Most Neglected” population displacement, based on three criteria: the international community’s lack of political will to find solutions, media coverage and funding for humanitarian needs.

The World with AFP

source site-29