Anglophone Crisis: Amnesty International Releases Another shocking Report

A government crackdown in two regions of Cameroon where English-speaking separatists are campaigning for an independent state has inflamed the crisis, Amnesty International said on Tuesday.

In a 37-page report, the human-rights watchdog said it had catalogued “unlawful killings, destruction of private property, arbitrary arrests and torture” committed by the security forces since late 2017.

“Far from resolving the crisis, the clampdown on any form of dissent and the heavy-handed response by the Cameroonian authorities and security forces appear to have empowered and created space for more radical and violent movements to emerge, with a focus on secession and armed struggle,” it said.

“The human rights violations committed by the Cameroonian security forces and authorities have also contributed to creating a pervasive climate of fear, which some observers say has led to a growing sense of alienation among communities in the Anglophone regions.”

The unrest is unfolding in the Northwest and Southwest Regions — English-speaking regions once governed by colonial Britain that joined French-speaking Cameroon after it gained independence from France in 1960.

Years of resentment at perceived discrimination sparked protests in October and November 2016.

The government responded with a clampdown, and in late 2017, the violence escalated further after radicals declared an independent state — an entity that has not been recognised internationally — and launched an armed campaign.

Amnesty said it had conducted interviews with more than 150 victims of, or eyewitnesses to, violence committed by the security forces or separatists.

Among the incidents, it said, was “the complete destruction” of the village of Kwakwa in the Southwest Region in December last year.

It was burned to the ground by the security forces after suspected separatists killed two gendarmes, Amnesty International said.

In the village of Dadi, at least 23 people, including minors and two men with mental disabilities, were detained for three days last December and were tortured, using sticks, electric shocks, guns or ropes, it added. At least one died after being transferred to Buea central prison, it said.

“As a result of these security operations and the consequent violence, over 150,000 people became internally displaced and more than 20,000 fled to Nigeria where they are living in remote locations, requiring humanitarian support,” it said.

The Cameroon authorities characterize the separatists as “terrorists” and accuse them in turn of attacks on police and troops and carrying out abductions and acts of intimidation.

Amnesty, addressing this question, said separatists had killed “at least” 44 members of the security forces, and also targeted ordinary people, including traditional chiefs, whom they suspected to be informants.

At least 42 schools have been attacked, two of which were seriously burned by arson, it said.

According to the International Crisis Group think-tank, at least 120 civilians and 43 security forces have been killed since the end of 2016.

The UN says 160,000 people have been internally displaced and 20,000 sought refuge in neighbouring Nigeria.

Note that the government of Cameroon has often accused Amnesty International of stocking the flames of the current socio-political crisis in the two English speaking regions of Cameroon by “publishing biased” reports about the government of Cameroon.

LVV