3 Police, One Civilian Killed in Restive NW Region – AFP
Armed separatists last week attacked a checkpoint” in the
village of Bingo, in the country’s Northwest Region, according to a source
familiar with military activity in the area.
“Two
wounded gendarmes were taken to hospital, where they died of their injuries,”
the source said.
In Bamenda, suspects riding a motorcycle also shot dead an
officer, a government spokesperson told AFP. A civilian also died after being
shot by soldiers during an operation in the nearby city of Santa, sources said.
The
violence marked the first casualties among the security forces in the troubled
region since Nigeria extradited 47 separatists on Monday, including their
self-proclaimed president, Sisiku Ayuk Tabe.
– “Escalation of violence” –
“There
is an escalation of violence, undoubtedly,” said Minister of Communication Issa
Tchiroma Bakary, citing “a campaign on social networks where they (separatists)
invite people to resist and kill.”
“These
calls can have an amplifying effect of violence,” he said.
The
separatists previously warned the extradition of the 47 from Nigeria to
Cameroon would lead to an escalation.
“The
abduction (of Ayuk Tabe) is throwing petrol on the flames of the revolution,”
Chris Anu, a member of the self-described “government”, told AFP.
The UN
refugee agency (UNHCR) on Thursday criticised Nigeria for breaching
international agreements over the extraditions, saying “their forcible return
is in violation of the principle of non-refoulement”.
Non-refoulement,
a French term, is the practice of not forcing refugees or asylum-seekers to go
back to a country where they could be persecuted.
The
UNHCR said most of the 47 had submitted asylum claims in Nigeria.
Amnesty
International has also expressed concern about the fate of the arrested
separatists, saying they could face torture and an unfair trial.
The
separatists are demanding independence for two regions that are home to most of
the country’s anglophones, who account for about a fifth of the population.
Their
campaign draws on widespread resentment over perceived discrimination at the
hands of Cameroon’s French-speaking majority.
On
October 1 last year, the breakaway movement issued a symbolic declaration of
independence for “Ambazonia,” their name for the putative state.
Cameroon’s president, Paul Biya, has responded with a crackdown,
including curfews, raids and restrictions on travel.
His
government has also forged closer cooperation with Nigeria, where around 30,000
Cameroonians have sought refuge from the violence.
The
anglophone minority in Cameroon is a legacy of the colonial period in Africa.
France and Britain divided up the former German colony under League of Nations
mandates after World War I.
A year
after the French-ruled territory became independent in 1961, the southern part
of British Cameroons was integrated into a federal system, scrapped 11 years
later for a “united republic”.
Cameroon
is due to hold general elections, including for the presidency, this year.
Observers say the ballot could be badly affected by the crisis in the
English-speaking regions.
Source: The Citizen
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