Deadly Violence in Cameroon’s Anglophone Regions
-- Escalation of violence marked by indiscriminate
killings and mass displacement
-- Security forces destroy villages, torture at least 23
persons including minors to extract “confessions”-
-- Armed separatists attack 42 schools, kill 44 security
forces Members
Armed separatists in Cameroon’s Anglophone regions have
stabbed to death and shot military personnel, burned down schools and attacked
teachers, while security forces have tortured people, fired on crowds and
destroyed villages, in a spiral of violence that keeps getting more deadly,
Amnesty International said today.
In a new report on Cameroon’s Anglophone
crisis, ‘A turn for the worse: Violence and human rights violations in
Anglophone Cameroon’, which is based on in-depth interviews with over 150
victims and eye-witnesses, and material evidence including satellite images,
the organization documents how general population is paying the highest price
as violence escalates in the North West and South West regions of Cameroon.
“People
in Cameroon’s Anglophone regions are in the grip of a deadly cycle of violence.
Security forces have indiscriminately killed, arrested and tortured people
during military operations which have also displaced thousands of civilians.
Their heavy-handed response will do nothing to calm the violence - in fact it
is likely to further alienate Anglophone communities and fuel further unrest,” said
Samira Daoud, Amnesty International Deputy Director for West and Central
Africa.
“For
their part, armed separatists have killed dozens of members of the security
forces. They also carried out attacks designed to strike fear amongst the
population, going as far as burning down schools and targeting teachers who did
not enforce the boycott.”
The
Anglophone regions of the Cameroon – the South-West and North-West - make up
approximately 20% of the country’s population. Many of their grievances date
back to the early 1960s, when these regions were included in the newly
established, mostly French-speaking, Republic of Cameroon.
Violence
and unrest escalated in late 2016 after a series of strikes and protests
against what teachers, lawyers and students viewed as further discrimination
against Anglophones. Between 22
September and 1 October 2017, large-scale protests were organized across the
Anglophone regions to symbolically proclaim the independence of a new state of
“Ambazonia.”
Torture and killings by the military
Cameroon’s military has responded to these
protests with arbitrary arrests, torture, unlawful killings and destruction of
property. In one striking incident, satellite images and other photographic
evidence obtained by Amnesty International show the complete destruction of the
village of Kwakwa, which was burned to the ground by Cameroonian security
forces following an operation conducted in December 2017 in connection with the
killing of two gendarmes by suspected armed separatists.
In some cases, following these security
operations, people were arbitrarily arrested and tortured while detained in
illegal detention facilities and in secret. For instance, at least 23 people,
including minors, were arrested by the security forces in the village of Dadi
on 13 December 2017 and spent three days in incommunicado detention. They told
Amnesty International that during this time security forces tortured them to
extract “confessions”, to force them to admit having supported the separatists.
Victims
described being blindfolded and severely beaten with various objects including
sticks, ropes, wires and guns, as well as being electrocuted and burnt with hot
water. Some were beaten until they lost consciousness, and Amnesty
International documented that at least one person has died in custody.
One man
who was arrested on 13 December 2017 in Dadi gave a harrowing account of the
torture he suffered:
“… They tied our
hands behind our backs, gagged us and tied our faces with our towels and
shorts, which they tore. They, then made
us lie in the water, face down for about 45 minutes… During three days, they
beat us with shovels, hammers, planks, and cables, kicked us with their boots
and poured hot water on us… when I tried to move and shouted, one of them used
the cigarette he was smoking to burn me.”
Amnesty International also received
information about numerous instances of deaths in custody. In one case, on 3
February 2018, the bodies of four men, who had been arrested in the town of
Belo by the security forces the day before, were found at the Bamenda Regional
Hospital mortuary, bloodied and with signs of torture.
Amnesty
International has also documented unlawful killings, including during three
security operations conducted by the army in the villages of Dadi, Kajifu and
Bodam (South-West) in December 2017.
Attacks on schools and teachers by separatists
The
report also documents how teachers and students have been targeted by
separatists for not participating in a boycott of schools perceived by many as
a symbol of how the English language and cultures in the Anglophone regions
have been marginalized by the authorities. At least 42 schools were attacked by
armed separatists between February 2017 and May 2018.
Amnesty International has documented various
attacks on students and teachers. On 30 January 2018, a masked gunman,
suspected to be a member of an armed separatist group, stormed the Government
Primary School in Ntungfe (North-West region). Armed with a locally-made gun,
he shot one teacher in the legs, and set fire to a motorbike before escaping.
The wounded teacher told Amnesty International:
“The
assailant […] told me that I was still coming to school in defiance of calls
for a schools boycott. […] He then asked me to raise my hands, but before I
could do so, he shot me. I fell to the ground…”
Between
September 2017 and May 2018, at least 44 members of the security forces were
killed in attacks at checkpoints, in the streets, or on their duty stations in
both the North-West and South-West regions.
In one
attack, on 1 February 2018, in the locality of Mbingo, North-West region, two
gendarmes manning a checkpoint were stabbed to death by a group of young
separatists armed with knives and machetes.
Amnesty International has also documented five
attacks on traditional chiefs, who separatists accuse of sympathizing with the
government.
“The armed separatists repeated targeting of
the general population demonstrates a total disregard for human life, and is
another example of the threat faced by people in the Anglophone regions,” said
Samira Daoud.
“Authorities must ensure accountability for crimes
committed by the security forces as well as by the armed separatists. They must
immediately end the use of unlawful, unnecessary and excessive force and ensure
that people are protected.”
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