Security
measures will be reinforced until law and order returns
Below is the
declaration of the Minister of Communication, Issa Tchiroma Bakary on the
balance sheet of October 1, 2017 events in the North West and South West
Regions
“Distinguished
Journalists,
I wish you
all a warm welcome to this meeting for an update on the crisis situation in the
North-west and South-West regions in the aftermath of October 1, 2017, date on
which the secessionists had planned numerous operations of violence and
antisocial conduct with the apex being the proclamation of the independence of
their fictitious state.
I will also mention the
situation on the front in the Far-North where our Defense and Security Forces
continue to curb the terrorist moves of the Boko Haram criminal organization.
As far as the Far North is
concerned, I am announcing that this Monday morning at 5:10 a.m, a double
suicide attack took place in Mozogo in the Mayo Moskota Subdivision in the Mayo
Tsanaga Division.
The bombing resulted in 03
deaths, including the two female suicide bombers and a civilian named Oumar
Madi. As you can see, our Defense and Security Forces are still committed in
the Far North facing an enemy now defeated on the battlefield, and reduced to
acts of cowardice such as the latest attack.
But as you know, with the
terrorist turn of secessionist claims in the North-west and South-west Regions,
our Security Forces have been facing armed attacks by insurgents claiming to be
members of the secessionist movement.
Distinguished
Journalists,
As I said in my last two
addresses on this matter – and I repeat it here: we are henceforth in the
presence of a full-fledged terrorist undertaking.
In this regard, permit me to say
a word to a few who, in recent days, seemed to have seen a problem when the
violence perpetrated by the armed wing of the secessionist movement was
qualified as terrorist actions.
Let me remind them of the
following definition of terrorism under international law: any action […] that
is intended to cause death or serious bodily harm to civilians and
non-combatants, with the purpose of intimidating a population or compelling a
Government or an international Organization to do or abstain from doing an act.
With regard to Cameroon’s
legislation, Article 2 of Law No. 2014/028 of 23 Decembre 2014 on the
suppression of acts of terrorism defines terrorism as any act or threatened act
likely to cause death, to endanger the life, to cause damage or injury, as well
as damage to natural resources, environmental or cultural heritage with the
intention to:
- intimidate
the population, cause fear or coerce the victim, the government and / or
organization, national or international, to do or to abstain from doing any
act, to adopt or abandon a particular position or to act according to certain
principles;
- disrupt the
normal functioning of public services, the provision of essential services to
the public or to create a crisis within populations;
- provoke
insurgency in the country;
As a matter of fact, we are here
dealing with such acts, those who commit them, those who mastermind them and
those who make themselves accomplices of such deeds.
I should
recall that, each time, the secessionists have not only publicly announced that
they are going to commit such acts, but they have always claimed responsibility
for their acts after executing them, that they have advertised them through the
media and social networks and that they promise to re-offend until their
fantasies come true.
Thus, after announcing they
would disturb public order and threatening the institutions and territorial
integrity, through numerous messages circulated online through the propaganda
organs of the secessionists, the Head of State, Commander-in-Chief of the Army,
and Supreme Commander of the Security Forces, prescribed a series of measures
in order to preserve peace in the North-West and South-West Regions.
By and large,
the balance sheet of the operations conducted by our Defense and Security
Forces faced with the attacks against them on October 1, 2017 is positive. Our
Forces have not only shown great professionalism but also a great restraint in
the face of many acts of provocation and open aggression committed in several
major localities of these two Regions.
The death toll
is about ten people among the assailants, including five who died during the
attempted mass escape from Kumbo prison, organized by the detainees themselves.
To do so, the
inmates orchestrated a fire start with the intention of burning a whole section
of the prison building, use it as a shield and vanish into thin air. It was
then that the prison guards assisted by the other Security Forces neutralized
them.
Among the five
dead, two prisoners were killed as they were trampled on into the fray.
One hundred and
thirty-five inmates of this prison stayed calm and remained on the spot. They
were immediately transferred to the Bamenda Central Prison by the means of the
Defense and Security Forces.
On the side of
the Defense and Security Forces, there are about a dozen wounded by bullets.
They have been provided medical attention by the military health services.
Apart from the
five prisoners who died in their attempt to escape, the other deaths recorded
among the assailants occurred as part of regulatory retaliation, following the
shooting of weapons of war of all calibers, hunting and trafficking guns, by
means of which the assailants attacked the Defense and Security Forces.
As it was, snubbed snippers
gunpointed and systematically opened fire on the elements of the Defense and
Security Forces.
Thus, at Etilwindi, Kumba II
Subdivision, in the Meme Division, 2 gendarmes were seriously wounded by
buckshot. It was in these circumstances that one of the five assailants was
killed.
In Banguem,
in the Koupé Manengouba Division, the Commander of the Gendarmerie Brigade was
wounded while on intervention.
A number of very daring
aggressions against the local administrative and military authorities were also
recorded in Belo, where the vehicle of the Senior Divisional Officer of the
Donga Mantung Division was set on fire.
In several
other localities, the vehicles of the administrative authorities as well as
intervention vehicles of the Defense and Security Forces were stoned or burnt
in large numbers.
Significant damage to property
in the public domain was recorded (DO and SDO offices, hospitals, courts, buildings
of regional and divisional services). Several school campuses were set on fire,
such as the "Seat of Wisdom" College, where there was a fire start
that was stopped by the Defense Forces and the population.
In Mamfé,
more than 400 armed men attacked the city via the Satom Bridge.
Another 200 people from
neighboring Nigeria were trying to cross the frontier by force at Ekok. They
were pushed back by the Gendarmerie Nationale on the Cameroonian side, aided by
the Nigerian Army posted there on the Nigerian side.
On behalf of the Government of
the Republic of Cameroon, I pay tribute to the Nigerian authorities for this
valuable collaboration which testifies to the excellent relations between our
two countries and the convergence of views in the struggle against separatism
and the terrorist peril, to which Cameroon and Nigeria are currently
confronted.
I would like to point out in
general terms that the response of our Defense Forces occurred following the
firing of which they were targets.
Several assailants and other
terrorists were arrested. It should be noted that among those arrested, there
are several individuals, in fact recidivist, who had just benefited from the
arrest of charges recently ordered by the Head of State.
These examples, as numerous and
not exhaustive as they are, sufficiently attest to the turn now taken by the
secessionists, whose determination to disrupt public order can’t be explained,
if not by the anti-republican ambitions they wish to impose by violence.
I remind you that the assailants
are now systematically making use of weapons of war.
Let me say it again: we are in
the presence of full-fledged terrorists who obviously want to take the
population hostage.
For it must be made clear, a
very large majority of the English-speaking population in this case, is opposed
to these barbaric acts.
Moreover, how could it be
otherwise, since these populations are the first victims of acts of terrorism
perpetrated under the false pretext of a pseudo-political claim, and in any
case contrary to the Constitution of the Republic.
That is why the planned
proclamation of the independence of this fake state could only be doomed to
failure.
There was therefore no
proclamation of independence of any separatist Republic on October 1, 2017.
This means that the separatists
have just failed in the most lamentable, shameful and pitiful way.
Let all those who are still
actively planning the destabilization and balkanization of Cameroon, with the
support of internal resources, know, once and for all, that no single
Cameroonian worthy of the name, Francophone or Anglophone, be they Christian,
Muslim or animist, coming from North or South, East or West, will be fooled by
the illusion of such a pipe dream.
They should
also know that every Cameroonian worthy of the name, starting with the first of
them, the President of the Republic His Excellency Paul BIYA, will fight until
his last breath to preserve this precious and inalienable legacy that we
inherited from our Founding Fathers.
Therefore, all the measures
already taken will be strengthened, and will apply until order permanently
reigns in these two Regions.
It is also an opportunity to
hail the civic behavior of a large section of the population of these Regions,
reassuring them that the Head of State, Commander-in-Chief of the Army will
spare no effort to ensure their safety, preserve the territorial integrity of
Cameroon, maintain order and peace on the national territory anytime, anywhere,
and create the conditions for a prosperous and emerging Cameroon.
Thank you for
your kind attention.”
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