CRIES OF 14-YEAR-OLDS BEING RAPED BY FRENCH CAMEROUN SOLDIERS, INFURIATE RESIDENCE OF BALIN-YONGA, ENGLISH-CAMEROON(AMBAZONIA)

In an appeal to diplomatic authorities in Yaounde and beyond, citizens of Bali Nyonga have appealed to the world to help end the abuses being inflicted by the French Cameroun colonial soldiers on the people of the County. In a release detailing the abuses, the Chairman of the County, Mr. Nji, enumerated the incidents of abuses ranging from rape to executions. Girls as young as 14 are carried forcefully by the gun-wielding French Cameroun soldiers into the bushes and their makeshift military camp at a nearby abandoned school. Families and neighbors, the communique details report desperate cries for help by the young women as the military engages in the abuses. Some who refuse or challenge the arrogant soldiers are shot and dumped. Such is the case of Adama, a young girl recently kidnapped in her sleep by the soldiers and after raping her, was shot and dumped by the roadside in a neighbourhood in Bamenda.

Below is the Full Communique from the Bali LGA

BALI NYONGA LGA DECRIES THE SYSTEMATIC RAPE AND TORTURE OF YOUTHS IN BALI NYONGA BY THE CAMEROONIAN MILITARY ====================== The Bali Nyonga LGA vehemently condemns and abhors the war crimes committed by the Cameroonian Military in Bali Nyonga within the past weeks and days. We have received at the level of the LGA, many horrific complaints from civilians within Bali Nyonga about the ongoing break-ins into homes and the arrests of women and young girls, some as young as 14 years old, by the Cameroonian Military stationed at Government School Bali town. Eyewitnesses and corroborated statements from friends and families of those arrested have painted a horrific picture of what is unfolding which involves the raping of some of the women and girls arrested. It is reported that as many as 30 soldiers sometimes take turns in raping the girls and women arrested, as confirmed by our investigative teams on the ground. There have been reports of screams, loud cries, and wailings coming from the Government School campus mostly at nighttime. We are told that girls as young as 14 and 15 years of age are among those rounded up and being raped and tortured. These actions by the Cameroonian Military appear, endorsed by the French Cameroun Military hierarchy as a way of humiliating and dehumanizing our vulnerable population, especially the youths, into submission and bondage.

Grand Mother Tortured by French Cameroun Soldiers in Bali Nyounga

This is not the first time that we have had reports of such dehumanizing practices of systematic rape and torture of women and young girls in Bali, however, it appears to be of a wider and more alarming scale this time around. The unusually heavy presence of the Cameroonian Military in Bali Nyonga, which is now estimated to be in the thousands, has stalled all daily activities in Bali Nyonga as the population is now living in complete fear and panic about going about their daily business and activities. We continue to demand that the Cameroonian Government should withdraw all its Military forces from Bali Nyonga as their presence there is causing tremendous pain and suffering to the population. (Con’t after images)

SOME IMAGES OF THE KILLINGS AND DESTRUCTION IN BALI NYONGA BY THE FRENCH CAMEROUN COLONIAL MILITARY

We, at the LGA, decry the use of women as sex toys by the Cameroonian Military and the indiscriminate arrests and torture of our vulnerable civilian population daily, and with complete impunity. The Cameroonian Military has continued to commit war crimes in Bali Nyonga in complicity and with tacit approval from the Cameroonian Government. We are therefore holding the Biya Government responsible for such heinous acts committed by the Cameroonian Military which constitute war crimes. We are calling on sons and daughters of Bali Nyonga both home and abroad to continue to raise the alarm about the war crimes being committed by the Cameroonian Military using any means possible including Twitter and other social media outlets. On the same note, we at the LGA express our regret for the selective outrage often conveyed by some Bali Nyonga elites ……………. silent when acts of Genocide and war crimes are being committed by the Cameroonian Military on the civilian population. We want to appreciate all those who have raised the alarm on this issue, and we continue to call on our civilian population to stay away from harm’s way and remain vigilant for the safety of their families and loved ones. We also ask that we put the people of Bali Nyonga in our thoughts and prayers during these difficult and challenging times. Together, and in unity, we will overcome these moments together as we remain resolute and steadfast until our homeland Is free for us and our future generations. Bah Davidson Nji, Chairman Bali Nyonga LGA

How Canada Failed Woefully in Playing Khartoum’s Role in the Six-year Civil War in British S.Cameroon(Ambazonia)

Though only in its 7th year, the ongoing civil war in the Cameroons, pitting the two former UN-Trust Territories (French Cameroon and British Southern Cameroons Ambazonia), bear striking resemblance to the second Sudanese Civil war that lasted from 1983- 2005, between the Central Sudanese Government and the Sudanese Peoples’ Liberation Army (SPLA) under Dr.John Garang. Throughout the conflict, Khartoum’s involvement was discernible through other factions that pretended to fight for the discriminated people of South Sudan, by multiplying their pains with Khartoum’s money and ammunition. Khartoum like Yaounde under Biya, temporarily succeeded in sowing discord amongst the South Sudanese liberation leaders, with its goal being to sideline Dr. John Garang, whose mission although cloudy at the start of the war later became an embodiment of hope for the South Sudanese people.

The Riek Machar’s of the Ambazonia War of Independence

IN Sudan: Machar was a rebel leader with the Sudan People’s Liberation Army/Movement (SPLM/A) headed by John Garang from 1984 until he fell out with Garang in 1991. (Like Chris Anu in the Ambazonia Civil War) in “August 1991 Riek Machar, Lam Akol and Gordon Kong announced that John Garang had been ejected from the SPLM. Their own faction called SPLA-Nasir accused Garang of ruling by force, in a “dictatorial reign of terror”;    As part of SPLA-Nasir, Mahar, was involved in 1991 Bor Massacre. The Southern Sudanese communities became more divided than ever before in their history. These organic divides among the Southern Sudanese communities were exacerbated by the deliberate “divide and rule” policies instituted by the regimes in Khartoum, in order to maintain their power over the Southern Sudanese peoples.” The same divide and rule by French Cameroun in sponsoring and assisting some of the groups that were present at the Canadian talks that were held in secrecy.

IN Ambazonia

Just like Riek Machar in the above quotes, Chris Anu, assumed the same role in the Ambazonia Struggle; Lying and faking evidences against the Interim government under Dr. Sako Ikome, who can be likened to Dr. John Garang of the Ambazonia Struggle. Dr. John Garang, like Dr. Sako Ikome believed that, “.. his troops’ courage came from “the conviction that we are fighting a just cause. That is something North Sudan and its people don’t have.” Rejected and cursed by the Pro-Khartoum groups in Sudan, like Dr, Sako Ikome, is being “blasphemed” in the Ambazonia civil war, both leaders were steadfast in their belief and commitment to the freedom for their people.

The Failed Canadian Mediation Attempt and Khartoum

With Khartoum and Yaounde believing that “divide and conquer” has succeeded in shelving John Garang, and Dr. Sako Ikome, the power-hungry Riek “Machar in 1996, signed a Political Charter and in 1997 the Khartoum Peace Agreement with the government of Sudan under Omar El-Bashir. Under this agreement, Riek Machar, was assistant to Omar el-Bashir, President of Sudan, and President of the Southern States Coordinating Council. He was also made commander in chief of the South Sudan Defense Force (SSDF), which included most of the ex-rebels who had signed the Khartoum agreement. “This was Khartoum’s desire to pick its own leader for the South Sudanese fighting for independence. All Dr. John Garang did was maintain his focus on the independence desire of the majority of South Sudanese people. The Khartoum attempt failed as Riek Machar later joined the SPLM.

Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mélanie Joly

Enter Canada in the Ambazonia Liberation War:

On the 2oth of January, 2023, the world woke up to a release from the Canadian Global Affairs on Peace process in Cameroon. The communique by the ” Honourable Mélanie Joly, Minister of Foreign Affairs,” outlines her own Ambazonian leaders that they have reached an agreement with for “peace process aimed at resolving the ongoing crisis in the North-West and South-West regions of Cameroon.” Akin to Omar El- Bashir, announcing his agreement with Riek Machar and the other South Sudanese rebel groups without the main group of Dr. John Garang, or a deal with Buthelezi for the end-of-Apartheid without the ANC. The Canadian release further xrays Canada’s ignorance of the main actors in the Ambazonia War of Independence. She enumerated the parties known to her:

“The parties to this agreement are the Republic of Cameroon, the Ambazonia Governing Council and the Ambazonia Defence Force, the African People’s Liberation Movement and the Southern Cameroons Defence Force, the Interim Government, and the Ambazonia Coalition Team. The parties further express the hope that other groups will join the process.’’

Dissecting the Parties

The Ambazonia Governing Council is owned by Dr. Ayaba Cho, while their atrocities are not the issue here, the fact that the Canadians will further sign another agreement with his defense wing – Ambazonia Defense Forces(ADF) , is tantamount to De Klerk signing separate agreements with the ANC and The Spear of the Nation (ANC’s military wing. Same goes for the African People’s Liberation Movement of Dr. Akwanga and its military wing – the Southern Cameroons Defence Force (SOCADEF). Worth noting is that these two defense groups form less than 18% of the military fighting in the Ambazonia War of Independence. The bulk of the military and humanitarian burden of the war is under the Ambazonia Restoration Forces (ARF), under the Ambazonia Interim government headed by Dr. Sako Ikome, who like Dr. John Garang was sidelined by the Canadians in their pursuit of peace in ” the NorthWest and South West parts of Cameroun.” A statement in which some of the lone rangers calling themselves groups leaders at the Canadian “pre-talks” like the forgotten Yerima-led IG, have been diving in dark corners, after the French Cameroun Government denied ever asking Canada to engage in any mediation or negotiations on her behalf. After the statement, what has not been in short supply is the baseless claim that the French Cameroun Government gave its blessing. As for any document to ascertain the explicit authority to Canada to carry on such initiative, none has been forth coming.

Below is the Canadian Release about the failed Peace process.

What’s Next?

Canada, her allies and backer of French Cameroun know best what to do. The general sentiments among British Southern Cameroonians is the fact that Canada’s leadership is bent on aiding France extend its sphere of influence by erasing the English-speaking people of the British Southern Cameroons. The killings have been going on now for the 7th year and Canada has failed to sympathize with the minority English-speaking people who from the onset like Quebec wanted nothing other than to be treated as equals. The Canadians and their allies treated Ukrainians differently and sanctioned Putin after the invasion of Ukraine. They did same in the 90s after Saddam took over Koweit. They helped South Sudan and North Sudan to reach a peace deal after more than 25 years of war, the UK gave Scotland a vote about the their union with the UK. The UK herself organized a vote about Brexit. French Cameroun is supported and defended by Paris. They can end the Atrocity Crimes now by forcing Paul Biya and French Cameroun to commit to negotiations without pre-conditions. Without such economic pressure and threats of isolation, French Cameroun and France will continue to sleep-walk to any idea about independent mediators as the facts and logic of history are not on their side. Also the resources of the territory of Ambazonia are too important for them than human life The genocide has claimed more than 45,000 lives, more than 600 villages burnt by the French Cameroun soldiers, now called occupational forces. Close to two million are internally and externally displaced. What Ambazonians want is a well-backed and independent mediator, who will begin by recognizing the equality of the two Trust Territories.

A Look at Africa’s Oldest and most Brutal Dictator, Paul Biya, at 90

He is believed to be 89(born February  131933), at Mvomeka’a, in the Southern part of French Cameroon . As president since 1982, he has outlived four French Presidents, eight UK Prime Ministers and six U.S Presidents. The BBC and other Western Media outfits describe him as an absentee landlord, who governs from his Intercontinental Hotel suit in Geneva, Switzerland. The Wall Street Journal  cautions the world not to declare him missing until his entire floor at the hotel is searched. Here he and his about 50-man entourage spend an average of $40,000 a day on hotel bills alone, excluding other amenities.  His chartered round trip to Geneva and back to Yaoundé cost about $855,000. In addition to this extravagant lifestyle is his waste on lobbyists in DC. Between 2017 -2020, Vanguard Africa reports that he spent about a million dollars on lobbyists in the US. This has increased since then with more firms reaping from the dictator as he tries to cling unto power and cleanse his image with massive killings of the minority English-speaking population. Foreign Policy Magazine details the lobbying by Biya and other dictators in Washington DC here.

He is a product of French colonial rule in Africa and has maintained an iron fist in this Central African country with a checkered history unopposed for four decades. He is the continent’s second longest governing dictator, with 40 years as president, seven prior to that as Prime Minister, and a couple as minister. This “African Strongman’s” horrible human rights record is no secret to the world – arbitrary arrests and disappearances, army and police brutality, mass bunker prisons, jailing of journalists among other crimes. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), ranks the country as the second in the world after Egypt in jailing journalists for false news charges. The U.S State Department’s 2017 human rights report on the country puts the abuses squarely on the frail 86-year-old Paul Biya who is the legislative, judiciary and executive head of Cameroun, ordering arrests and detentions at will. He equally controls every social and cultural life of the country including the Catholic Church, where prelates from his tribe have vehemently defended his ills.

Military Brutality over Development

While development has stagnated since 1982 when he took over power, his military has benefited from enormous latest western-style weapons and training. This support has elevated any uniform-wearing officer to the status of a demi-god. Biya’s name is branded by these arrogant officers as a license for gross human rights abuses with impunity. Nowhere are these crimes evident daily than the systematic annihilation of the minority English-speaking population that has got a short end of the stick from a union with the majority French-speaking country, since 1961. Here innocent civilians and their residences are razed by the soldiers with no remorse. just like Hitler called the Jews names to help in their extermination, Paul Biya and his killer squad started by calling the English-speaking people DOGS(chien), and now secessionists or terrorists, thus justifying their extermination.

hitler n biya

Presided Over the Mass Execution of Every Ethnic Group but His

As one of Cameroun’s oldest administrators, Paul Biya has participated and also presided over the massacre of all other ethnic groups in the country but his Beti/Bulu clan.

Biya and the French  presided over the annihilation of more than 100,000 Bamilekes and Bassas in the pre and post colonial era.“Cameroon’s independence from France was a bitter struggle,” Cameroonian editorialist Gabriel Mbarga told RFI recently. Nationalist unrest broke out at the end of France’s 10-year rule in 1955 and was brutally suppressed by French forces, leaving thousands dead. “It became very violent after the suspension of the UPC independence party and the assassination of its leader Ruben Um Nyobe on 13 September 1958,” Mbarga said. “Estimates of the death toll, still debated by many experts, range from 100,000- 400,000 people killed between 1959 and 1964. In the department of Sanaga Maritime, largely populated by the ethnic group named the Bamileke, 120,000 were killed in 1960 alone” Mbarga concluded. (Click here).

Although only about 1000 people were officially said to have been arrested and eventually sentenced to death by Biya, for a failed coup in 1984, living witnesses talk of a deathly purge of northerners by the dictator following the coup. Thousands are said to have been eliminated. Since then, Biya has been more brutal in his crack down even on legitimate opposition. in 2008 during legitimate demonstration against higher food prices and an attempt to change the constitution to enable him run as president again, Biya and his soldiers are said to have killed more than 100 civilians. The U.S Statement Department’s 2008 report was blunt on the dictator’s actions,“Security forces committed numerous unlawful killings. Security forces also engaged in torture, beatings, and other abuses, particularly of detainees and prisoners” (Click here).

Paul-Biya-en-visite-privée-en-Europe-FEB-2016-660x330
Biya and Wife going Home to Switzerland

Majority of people on the streets of Cameroun had long felt it was time for the frail and stone-hearted octogenarian to go, but the fear of incarceration and charges of sedition, terrorism, or other trump up charges, all punishable by the death penalty put a lid on these rumblings from imploding. Measured opposition on the internet is seriously monitored by the regime’s secret men who are everywhere.

“How can our prayers be answered in Zimbabwe?’’, a brave social media post by a frustrated Camerounian made the rounds, after another sit-tight octogenarian – Robert Mugabe was overthrown in November 19, 2017, by Mnangagwa. Other paranoid Cameroonian activists caricatured Mugabe with luggage on his head dragging a seemingly glued Biya behind. Despite these abuses which run afoul western values, the puzzling question has been; why has the dictator been able to stay in power for this long, when others with less human rights crimes such as Maduro of Venezuela are on the West’s chopping board?

Our Dictator.

In addition to unfettered French intervention in FrenchCameroun’s affairs since 1959, as part of a pre-independence agreement, including deciding who rules, Biya has benefited enormously from Western and Chinese military assistance. According to the website Defenseweb, Biya’s arms suppliers include the United States, South Africa, Spain, Serbia, Russia, Israel and France. These countries have delivered weapons ranging from “armored vehicles, transport and combat helicopters, mortars, unmanned aerial vehicles and light and transport aircraft.” Most in the guise of fighting Islamic extremism. The U.S even maintains a drone base in the country and helps with training. Mr. Biya has not shied to direct these weapons against his citizens frustrated with his loathsome administration.

While some of these countries are known for their dismal human rights records, the silence of others like the U.S, Canada and Germany to well corroborated abuses have been stunning. An Amnesty international investigation in 2017, shows abuses at Fotokol and Salek military base in the Northern part of the country (Click here). The base at the time of the abuses had about 300 U.S personnel. Victims claim they saw white men in the window of their cells. Numerous evidences of families and children being massacred in the North (Click here), and rivers with corpses and mass graves in the English regions of the country have failed to muster western ire. Kudos to the Kingmaker – France that ensures the world looks elsewhere. While the old global order has largely insulated these abuses from a global audience thus a leeway for songbirds of human rights to conceal their double standards, digital media has provided no space for such spins. These crimes are easily and instantly put on the menu and dining tables of these global power-players like the UN and its member-states

Cameroon-US-military
US Military Training Biya’s Soldiers

Policymakers who have often reacted instantly to abuses in their own countries have remained indifferent to such gory images coming from their dictators such as Paul Biya of Cameroon. The UK for example despite agreeing that Paul Biya has committed crimes against humanity in the anglophone regions still signs a $1.5B oil and gas deal to be executed in the anglophone regions where the massacres and ethnic cleansing are taking place (Click here). Here a French Cameroun-appointed administrator on radio ordered villagers to leave or be “neutralized” – a word used by the dictator and his soldiers as they kill for fun in English-Cameroon.

While this western hypocrisy has fortified the position of these dictators thus increasing their appetite for more genocidal acts on their citizens, it has also eroded the credibility of organizations like the UN and countries like the US, UK, Germany etc, as leading global defenders of human rights. Even the U.S has overlooked its own laws by continuing to maintain military relations with Mr. Biya despite the Leahy Law that forbids assistance to any country with questionable human rights records. In the midst of what the U.S Ambassador to Cameroon Mr. Henry Balerin calls “targeted killings” of anglophones, the U.S still donated military aircrafts to the dictator.

US amb nplane

At Least 40,000 English-speakers(Ambazonians) Massacred since 2016

It is estimated that Mr. Biya has killed more than 40,000 innocent civilians in the English-speaking regions of the country who are demanding for a safeguard of their rights in the union which they voted to belong as co-equals in 1961. More than 500,000 are internally displaced with another 120,000 as refugees in Nigeria (Click here). To see the unfolding genocide, click here. While these evidences equal or supersede the same crimes, the U.S and the West are advancing as reason to depose Maduro of Venezuela, who has been in power for shorter than Biya, the West’s darling dictator remains steadfast in his abuses including jailing political dissenters. The almost 90-year-old dictator’s desire to ethnically cleans any community that opposes him are articulated even by some of his ministers who believe such actions is justified. For Biya’s Justice Minister, Momo Jean de Dieu, annihilating any Camerounian who opposes Biya will be justified just like Hitler’s massacre of 6 million “industrious and arrogant Jews”, who posed a threat to him and Germany (Click here). As one Cameroon activists puts it, “It’s hypocritical for the Israeli Ambassador to Cameroun to be outrage and demands an apology over Jews and holocaust comments, when the actual holocaust is happening with the Anglophones  in Cameroon”.

Rigged Elections with Bogus Election Observers

Since Mr. Biya willy-nilly accepted multiparty politics in 1990, he and his ruling Cameroun People’s Democratic Movement (CPDM) continue to choke with victory constipation at all elections while all contenders cry foul. To embellish his image globally, the old fox has embarked on lobbying and fake election observers. In 2005, while election observers such as former Canadian PM, the Roman Catholic Church under Cardinal Christian Tumi, characterized Biya’s 71% victory as “surrounded by fraud like previous ones”, the dictator was up with a big bounty for fake election observers from the US. Biya picked up the tab of $80,000 for an Association of Former Members of the U.S Congress headed by a Biya lobbyist at the time, Ronnie Shows. The association despite global assessment of a fraud election, endorsed the outcome claiming: “This is what democracy is about.” A month after, one of the six-members of the delegation signed a new lobbying contract with the dictator to feed global opinion about the democratic strides being undertaken.

fake election observers

Sticking to his old playbook, the octogenarian and cronies produced the same script in 2018. However, new technology was not on their side. With gross apathy and verifiable election rigging, Mr. Biya this time hired some fraudsters from the U.S ranging from farmers in Ohio to a Jewish activists/Journalist in the name of Nurit Greenger, claiming to be representing Transparency International (Click here). A claim debunked by Transparency International. When questioned on social media for the gross deception, the group’s leader was unapologetic and offensive, blocking anybody on social media who challenges their action on the Cameroun election. The state’s propaganda media houses that lied to the country about the independence of the observers have maintained sealed lips on the scam. Despite these documented anti-democratic tactics to cling unto power at all cost, the “democratic” West have stood by the old dictator failing even to formally condemn these totalitarian actions that have deprived the country of some of its citizens and meaningful progress. Mr. Biya is more focused on quashing dissent than the well-being of the repressed population. As one French Cameroun blogger puts it, “Putting pressure on Maduro to resign while, coaxing with dictator Biya is bad for western values”.

Is the end in Sight?

At almost 90, the Lion man is scarcely seen at official ceremonies that he used to preside over. What the world and country is used to now is compulsory younger portrait of Biya, displayed at such events and others by loyal party leaders and his appointed followers. The state media (CRTV), has embarked on a skillful media manipulation of his every appearance, such as diverting viewer attention when the old man fumbles at well-planned ceremonies like the African Nation’s cup or Macron’s visit to the country. His recent dismal appearance was at the US- Africa Summit November 2022, where a frail-looking Biya, was filmed in a conference center demanding from his assistant, if there were important people in the room. Many interpret it as his inability to know where he was. “How can a president at an occasion for presidents be asking if there are important people present.” A social media post questions. These snippets of blunders are fodder to the population of the country who have no outlet for their frustration. It happened in the US because the dictator, and his state media had no control over the event. Back in the country, while all opposition has been silenced, his eldest son, FranK Biya, has been allowed to test his political power by criss-crossing the country talking to traditional leaders loyal to his father. Many have interpreted the move as groundwork for his eventual successor to his father. A father-son succession typical in all the countries of the Central African Region.

Biya and son Frank Biya

With brutality, nepotism, bribery and corruption, divide and conquer, Biya has succeeded to stay in power, but coking a combustible tank that will definitely explode when there is no scary image of him at every corner in the country. The anglophone regions that today has limited control from him is moving increasingly away from Biya and maybe the two Cameroons as was initiated in 1961. The majority Muslin north is equally claiming that any post-Biya succession must revert back to them. These uncertain events are likely to unfold uglily for the Cameroons.

Another Grand Mother, 75-year-old, Gang-raped and Executed by French Cameroun Soldiers.

This weaponization of rape by the French Cameroun soldiers is well documented, but nothing has been done to protect the victims or discourage this humiliating libido of these beasts. Even women and their organizations that have championed the crusade for peace in the Cameroons have shied away from these uncountable atrocious crimes that these Sanguinary soldiers, now seen as forces of occupation continue to commit on the vulnerable people of British Southern Cameroons(Ambazonia). The church and its leaders have become God’s “holy” soldiers, with lies in defending the killers of these faith-full Christians, while deceiving them that God is in control. Recently, the Moderator of the Presbyterian Church in Cameroon, Rev. Fonki Samuel Forba throw his own pastor under the bus, as he defends the French Cameroun soldiers who shot at the church in Balinyounga, killing one, wounding many. One of the wounded being the pastor whom the Moderator, dismiss his testimony of who shot at them. Click here for that story.

Mama Munji Cecilia, on that faithful 19 October, 2022, had just taken her evening bath after toiling the fields. As she was about to apply lotion on her body, the French Cameroun soldiers, sneaking on her forced their way into her room. An eyewitness recount, “The woman had just taken her bath and was in her room when the soldiers entered. many who saw them took cover and after sometime in her room, we heard gun shots. When they left, we rushed there only to see her naked body in the pool of her own blood. We are saddened and I feel like fighting back. Enough is enough,” A native of new town, Guzang narrates the ordeal of Mama Munji .

Anger and Fear Fill the Air

Angry cries from the bewildered population fill the area as the remains were ferried to the mortuary. Images on her dead bed show her naked with traces of blood on her laps and the bed sheet. She was an avowed Presbyterian Christian. Her rape is one too many in the ongoing genocide that has killed more than 36,000 people. The French Cameroun soldiers have raped right from babies to old mothers, including breast feeding mothers by the road side in broad daylight. No one dares question their genocidal sex weapon as the consequences is death. Recently, innocent villagers were killed in Fungom, Wum, after a French Cameroun soldier kidnapped a young girl into the bushes, without telling their colleague. When his whereabouts could not be ascertained, the French Cameroun soldiers unloaded their guns killing at least six innocent villagers, accusing them of their relatives having killed their colleague. When he re-emerged after the “forceful” rape, nothing happened as the villagers bury their loved ones. An act that continues to unfold in the six-year-long civil war.

Video of Mami Munji Cecelia, in the pool of her own blood, after the rape and Execution

Additional Coverage of the story

French Cameroun Military, loot, burn twelve houses, five bikes, kill one

At least twelve houses have been burnt to ashes and an old man killed in Mbessa, a village in Belo Local Government Area , Boyo County in English-Cameroons(Ambazonia). Business places and homes were reportedly looted. The incident reportedly occurred Tuesday, October 11, 2022 following an invasion by elements of the French Cameroonian army. At least 40,000 people have been killed since 2016, when the genocide began. More from this site

ANALYZING CANADA’S HYPOCRISY TOWARDS THE GENOCIDE IN ENGLISH-CAMEROON(AMBAZONIA), BY Boh Herbert

His frustration is legitimate, his anger righteous and his targets genuine. Do black Lives really matter? To journalist, Democracy Activist, Boh Herbert, and other black Africans especially from British Southern Cameroons(Ambazonia), they don’t, else Canada that has the same historical and linguistic character with the current Kamerun, will not be pretending that the genocide on the minority English-speaking people who can as well be called Quebecois, doesn’t matter. This fact embedded in history alongside the hypocrisy of the west, this time championed by the Quebec-led Trudeau, government of Canada is x-rayed by Mr. Boh, in this article titled: ” The World Versus Southern Cameroons.

The World Versus Southern Cameroons

By Ntumfoyn Boh Herbert (Yindo Toh)

Another leg of a century-old game – the World versus Southern Cameroons – will be played next week in Canada. The players, referee, line judges, spectators, match delegates, fans, financiers, and victims (over 30,000 slain since November 2017) are the same. 

Bloody rounds of the tragic version of this game are being played in Southern Cameroons, to the deafening silence of the international community – unimpressed by genocide. Worse than criminal silence, those who, not so long ago, called for “negotiations without preconditions”, are back to pulling strings, in the shadows and watching the game… in callous indifference. The game prioritizes interests over rights or lives. In it, geopolitics trumps sovereignty rights and sticking with allies, however evil the alliance, is better so long as might makes right.

Activists for an independent Southern Cameroons have been played at this game for over 100 years. It is the vengeance they got served for rejecting a 44-year-old experiment by the United Kingdom to assimilate them into Nigerians. In 1961, the world ganged up to impose more of the same. In a plebiscite supervised by the United Nations (no less!), Southern Cameroonians were forced to choose either what they had earlier rejected – union with Nigeria – or its next worse alternative – union with Cameroun.

US President Joe Biden and Canadian PM Justin Trudeau

Today’s events in Ukraine makes the hypocrisy shouting. Imagine the United Nations and NATO forcing Ukraine (once a part of the defunct Soviet Union) to gain and/or maintain independence either by becoming a part of Russia or by becoming a part of (wild guess) China. Imagine an African country doing what Canada is doing next week: host and moderate an event to tell citizens of Quebec to give up their campaign, not to obtain, but to restore their independence. Imagine South Africa staging a public relations event on behalf of the rest of Canada while the latter’s army slaughters citizens of Quebec. The West is willing to go nuclear in defense of Ukraine, but engages in diplomatic hide-and-seek games if required to decry genocide. It won’t set aside its interests to reaffirm the rights of natives to self-determination, self-rule, and freedom from colonial domination in all its forms. You heard right: “black lives (don’t) matter”. 

That’s how genocide is made. Impunity. The kind of impunity that France and Cameroun enjoy in Southern Cameroons under the pretext of fighting “terrorists” and “secessionists”. The insistence to keep Southern Cameroons a part of Cameroun that Nigeria did not have in 1953-54 when Ambazonia broke away and that Russia can’t evoke in dealing with ex-Soviet Ukraine. 

Cameroun’s tyrant-for-life, Paul Biya, has confessed that this is about treating other humans as game. “We tried assimilating their system into the majority francophone system but because of identity difference, it failed,” Biya told Sudanese-born telecoms billionaire Mo Ibrahim during an interview in 2019. Cameroun’s failed 61-year-old experiment, like the 44 years of efforts by Nigeria, will never convert Ambazonians into Camerounians. The resolve of this “Never Again Generation” will never be broken. In fact, the monkey games which give Cameroun a pass for engaging but not committing to the Swiss Process or play prolongation time in Canada, pretending to be for mediation, will only persuade movements like mine, MoRISC, to get fully involved with funding self-defense or start an armed wing… because monkey see, monkey do.

Ngarbuh Massacre 14 February, 2020

Today’s unraveling was both predictable and predicted. Dag Hammarskjold, the UN Secretary General from 1953-1961, warned that “uniting the Southern Cameroons to the Cameroun Republic is like forcing a balloon under the sea. One day, it will come out”. That day broke fast… dawning before Dag Hammarskjold’s tragic loss in a plane crash. In the hope of drowning the Ambazonian independence balloon, the West ignored the overwhelming vote for independence at the Mamfe Conference in 1957. It violated the UN Charter. It looked away in February 1961 as Cameroun (independent on 1st January 1960) adopted a federal constitution under which it effectively annexed Southern Cameroons. This was two months before the 21st April 1961 UN vote for independence and five months before effective independence on 1st October 1961.

France, a veto power-wielding Permanent Member of the Security Council sold all shame to defend its interests, delaying UN resolutions and causing the vote to be taken several times in the forlorn hope that Southern Cameroons would be denied independence. That campaign failed, but the game was only getting started. Since 1961, it’s been played into prolongations. The United Kingdom has swallowed its tongue, seeing no evil, hearing no evil, and saying no evil of its ally, France. London has watched with sealed lips as Paris has led Southern Cameroons, like a sheep from self-government (even under colonial rule back in 1954) to the slaughter house of recolonization. Along with UN officials, the UK declared forfeiture, staying away from the UN-mandated Foumban Conference in July 1961 where France and Cameroun were allowed to snatch victory from the jaws of the bitter defeat they suffered three months earlier at the UN General Assembly.

This history is useful in understanding why the West, to this day, plays spectator. Three years ago, when the Swiss Government announced that it had the consent of Cameroun and Southern Cameroons liberation movements to launch a mediation process for “negotiations without preconditions”, the same old games were reactivated. In public, the West blessed the initiative. In the dark, the world – the UN, the African Union, the European Commission, the Commonwealth of Nations, the governments of the United States, the UK and Canada – did little for it to work. Supporting the Swiss in what was the first meaningful opportunity since the Foumban Conference to address the root causes of The Southern Cameroons Problem would have hurt the interests of colonizers – akin to scoring an own  diplo-goal. 

So, the West pretended to pressure Cameroun. It said all the right things, by day. By night, though, world powers sabotaged the process. After three years of mumbling support for the Swiss-led Process, France has confessed it is as “blind” as it claimed to be during the Rwanda Genocide. Last July, Macron sang from the same hymn book as his “best pupil”, Paul Biya, when he called for a return to the well-documented failed solution known as decentralization. In the shadows, Canada, a major financier of the Swiss Initiative, had already embarked on collaborating with so-called moderates in the Biya regime (if they exist).

Next week, Canada will deliver for Yaounde when it hosts and moderates Cameroun’s Second Grand National Dialogue in Canada. In Canada’s minority French-speaking Quebec Province, where an army of mostly Canada’s majority English-speaking people is not slaughtering those who seek independence for Quebec; in the province which France actively supported to secede from Canada, Ottawa will host what Cameroun dreams could be the first step in Ambazonia’s surrender. Ottawa is open about a few secrets. For the record, it admits this is not Canada initiating another third-party mediation. Please, read: this is Canada playing monkey games at the behest of powerless, spineless “moderates” in the Biya regime. They are at the service of Slave Prime Minister Dion Ngute who claims to have the blessings of Tyrant Biya for this N-th dead-on-arrival effort at reversing the irreversible.

As both umpire and player in Canada – a sharp contrast with its status of “one of two, both equal in status” under the Swiss-led Process – Yaounde cannot wait for kick-off. It has already dispatched three junior level French-speaking staff from Dion Ngute’s office. Nine enablers of Southern Cameroonian descent, most of them civil society representatives based in Southern Cameroons, and two regime apparatchiks (an unelected mayor and the head of the so-called National Youth Council) complete their line-up. These characters will face off against individuals and leaders of organizations supposedly fighting for independence. They are swimming against an irreversible tide. A tsunami of Ambazonians, in their millions, see through these games and, like me, will never attend. Sadly, for a fortnight, I have been horrified to witness people I have considered comrades in the struggle literally beg to be invited to this Camerouno-Camerounian Grand National Dialogue hosted in Canada.

Canada’s role – even as moderator – is less than holy. Ottawa is still one of Yaounde’s arms suppliers – genocide notwithstanding. It believes it needs to babysit Ambazonia, helping hand-pick the enablers who will window-dress as Southern Cameroonians next week. Why stop, right? In supporting the Swiss Process, Canada still funded a certain Coalition for Dialogue and Negotiations – opposed to the Process – reportedly to help coordinate self-defense groups. 

Getting next week’s rushed game on the fixtures is no accident. That it comes hard on the heels of the Swiss announcement is intended, not unfortunate. Cameroun badly needs a public relations coup. Even the staunchest of Cameroun supporters were caught off guard by its foot-in-the-mouth decision about no longer being interested in third-party mediation. Beginning next week, Canada’s not-so-good offices can help sanitize Cameroun’s blood-dripping hands. It is an off ramp Yaounde needs to blur the message that its military option is full throttle. The West, which in the 1950s feared that an independent Southern Cameroons would be pro-Moscow, now seeks to placate Yaounde to prevent Russia expanding its influence in Africa. 

Young Trudeau having the Freedom to campaign against a vote for Quebec Independence, but can’t argue for the same referendum rights for the minority English-speaking people of Kamerun, undergoing genocide

Next week, Cameroun will begin its abuse of Canada. It is just a matter of time before what it just did to Switzerland is done to Canada. Ottawa seems aware. It admits next week will start small and slow. Why go fast with only tens of thousands of Southern Cameroonians – not Ukrainians and not Quebecois – slaughtered, right? To protect its interests, Canada is throwing a life vest to Cameroun, serving as a Trojan Horse. Next week, the Swiss of Humanitarian Dialogue and UN observers will climb out of the belly of the Ottawa Horse and unadvised spectators at this new/old tragicomedy will be fooled into thinking the Swiss endorse this. To their credit, Canada admits that this effort amounts to throwing as much jelly on the wall to see what will stick. It is, they say, bringing together Southern Cameroonians to sought it out among themselves – in Canada. The late Christian Cardinal Tumi has to be turning in his grave.

For details of the Atrocity Crimes since 2016, please click here

Ntumfoyn Boh Herbert (Yindo Toh)


THE AFRICAN GENOCIDE THE QUEEN LEFT BEHIND FOR MACRON TO PURSUE

These pictures at the British Embassy in Yaounde, Cameroun, during condolences to the British people sums up the willingness of the British Government to allow Macron and French Cameroun to continue the genocide on the British Territory of Southern Cameroons(Ambazonia). The picture shows the late Queen Elizabeth, at Buckingham Palace with British Southern Cameroon leaders, (another with some leaders in Nigeria), in the 50s, as they prepare for their independence, as was prescribed in the 1919, Versailles Treaty( Trusteeship Agreement). This full independence has never been achieved as the Queen in complicity with De Gaulle, the UN, will violate the Trusteeship Agreement which was to prepare all the territories seized from Germany for self-rule.

The result of this blatant violation of the Trusteeship Council involved organizing a fake plebiscite for the territory in 1961, leaving out the option for independence. In its place the Queen asked the territory whether it wanted to gain independence by joining two different independent dominions. As an autonomous territory with a functioning Government, two democratic transitions, the British Southern Cameroons, was forced into a Union with France’s oversee province -French Cameroun in 1961. The Union never worked out as the territory’s vast resources forced French Cameroun (France) to abolish the Union (similar situations between Ethiopia and Eritrea etc), thus the start of marginalization of the territory. Despite years of warnings by the CIA, of an impending civil war if the apartheid-level treatment of the English-speaking Southern Cameroonians continue, France ramped up the assimilation with French schools, administrators etc. The English Common Law System was replaced with French Civil Law etc. Like the CIA predicted, the British Government(Queen) who created the mess were busy with the French sharing the rich oil potentials of the territory. This video of the Former UK Minister for Africa, Harriet Baldwin, defending Newage’s oil acquisition in the British Southern Cameroons in the midst of the genocide sums up the role of the Queen and the UK, like in apartheid South Africa – go for their economic interest first.

Harriet Baldwin, defends the UK’s BLOOD FOR OIL & GAS POLICY, in British Southern Cameroon (Ambazonia)

DOES WESTERN INTEREST SUPERSEDE BLACK LIVE AND U.S VALUES?

The civil war, that Gregory Stanton of Genocide Watch, has emphatically stated is a genocide based on his stages of genocide has seen the killing of more than 40,000 innocent civilians since 2016. Villages more than the size of the US State of Connecticut have been burnt down by the French Cameroun soldiers (now called colonial soldiers by the citizens of the territory). This genocide is backed by France and her diplomatic allies. Despite affirmations by US diplomats like Mr. Henry Balerin, that there is “Targeted Killings” by the French Cameroun soldiers, the White House has silently backed France in this extermination, while acknowledging the plight of thousands of displaced people from the territory around the world. The Biden Administration’s Temporary Protective Status for refugees from Kamerun is an acknowledgement of the genocide on the minority English-speaking people who are executed daily as they struggle to assert their colonial attachment to British/Anglo-Saxon values. The British Government on its part has remained silent on the killings as Paris violates whatever human rights provisions exist in the world.

Queen Elizabeth and Son Charles, now King Charles

THE QUEEN DELAYED OUR FREEDOM

Like in Apartheid South Africa, the civil rights movement in the USA, Gandhi’s silent resistance to British colonial rule, the English-speaking people of the British Southern Cameroons(Ambazonia) have shown to the world that, the UN’s forced Union with France/French Cameroun has come to an end. They no longer take control from Yaounde. Elections or other activities organized in the territory are boycotted, all forms of resistance to the French Cameroun is evident everywhere. However, as Black People, whose resources are more important to the western European allies, these civil disobediences that are celebrated worldwide as signs of peoples’ power have been ignored by these same western powers, as French Cameroun/France try to suppress them with tanks, bribery, corruption, daily executions etc. “We don’t want anything to do with French Cameroun, the territories interim Government led by Dr. Sako Ikome, affirms. “We find it hard to completely mourn the Queen’s passing, as she literally died with one key to our freedom. Thank God, we know our history and still have a copy of this key and will fight for our freedom.” He affirms. (Below are images of innocent civilians killed and burnt by French Cameroun soldiers, backed by Macron in Bali, British Southern Cameroons.

WHAT NEXT FOR KING CHARLES?

As the Queen becomes history, the genocide on the minority English-speaking people of the former British Southern Cameroons continues. France is bent on obliterating the territory to expand its Francophone empire. On her part, the British Government has practically acted like another French oversee Territory – watching in silence s the French violate every treaty. The UK has conducted a BREXIT for herself, but will not support the same vote for the people of the territory who have shown their hatred for the Queen’s 1961 decision. The British Monarchy, organized a SCOTXIT for Scotland, but has refused to take up the British Southern Cameroons genocide to those who matter for a democratic resolution, as the West claim democracy is the bedrock of stability. With King Charles on the throne and having visited the British Southern Cameroons, the genocide on this British Territory by French Cameroun can be ended if the British Embassy in Yaounde, look at the image of the Late Queen with Southern Cameroons leaders and remind the British Parliament and King Charles to organize a Referendum for the territory like they did for Scotland. For Six years now, it is clear that the people of the territory are done with the Fake Union with French Cameroun.

To read more about the current genocide and the history of the territory, now called Ambazonia click here.

To get a sense of the number killed over the years since 2016, please click here

Cameroon: Army Killings, Disappearances, in North-West Region

Investigate and Prosecute Abusive Security Forces

The destroyed remains of a house in Belo’s Sho neighborhood burned by Cameroonian soldiers during a counter-insurgency operation on June 11, 2022.
The destroyed remains of a house in Belo’s Sho neighborhood burned by Cameroonian soldiers during a counter-insurgency operation on June 11, 2022. © Private, Belo, North-West region, Cameroon, June 12, 2022

(Nairobi) – Cameroonian soldiers summarily killed at least 10 people and carried out a series of other abuses between April 24 and June 12, during counter-insurgency operations in the North-West region, Human Rights Watch said today. The troops also burned 12 homes, destroyed, and looted health facilities, arbitrarily detained at least 26 people, and are presumed to have forcibly disappeared up to 17 others.

“Instead of protecting the population from threats posed by armed groups, the Cameroonian security forces have committed serious violations against civilians, causing many to flee their homes,” said Ilaria Allegrozzi, senior central Africa researcher at Human Rights Watch. “Cameroonian authorities should conduct credible and impartial investigations into these serious abuses and hold the abusers accountable.”

Between June 3 and July 21, Human Rights Watch interviewed by telephone 35 people with knowledge of 4 incidents in which the security forces allegedly committed serious abuses. Interviewees included 16 witnesses, 8 family members of victims, a community leader, 3 journalists, 5 members of civil society organizations, and 2 human rights lawyers. The incidents took place in and around the towns and villages of Belo, Chomba, Missong, and Ndop. Human Rights Watch also reviewed 53 photographs and 16 videos, shared directly with researchers, showing evidence of the military violations.

The violations were committed during military operations against armed separatist groups seeking independence for the two English-speaking regions of Cameroon, North-West and South-West. Human Rights Watch has also documented serious abuses by separatist fighters during the same period, including the killings and kidnapping of civilians, and attacks on students, teachers, and schools.

Witnesses said that on April 24, soldiers from the Rapid Intervention Battalion (Bataillon d’intervention rapide, BIR) outside of Ndop, stopped, severely beat, and then detained between 30 and 40 motorbike riders who were part of a funeral convoy, allegedly because the soldiers suspected them of being separatist fighters. Up to 17 of those detained are presumed forcibly disappeared, as their whereabouts is unknown, but they were last seen in military custody.

“The soldiers selected those among us who had dreadlocks,” a bike rider who was later released told Human Rights Watch. “For them this is an indication that you are an amba boy [separatist fighter]. They forced us to undress and beat us savagely with an iron hammer and with their belts.”

On June 1, soldiers from the 53rd Motorized Infantry Battalion (Bataillon d’infanterie motorisée, BIM) killed nine people, including four women and an 18-month-old girl, in Missong village, in a reprisal operation against a community suspected of harboring separatist fighters.

On June 8, soldiers conducted an abusive military operation in Chomba, burning a home and looting the local health center. They also arrested a woman along with her 11-year-old foster child and held them for 24 days at the BIR barracks in Bafut, North-West region. Human Rights Watch has documented other cases of civilians detained on military bases, in violation of Cameroonian law.

From June 9 to 11, in Belo, security forces summarily killed one man, injured another, burned at least 12 homes, destroyed a community health center, and looted at least 10 shops.

Human Rights WatchAmnesty International, and other organizations have also documented a longstanding pattern of unlawful and incommunicado detention and torture in custody in Cameroon.

On July 28, Human Rights Watch sent an email to the Cameroon army spokesperson, Colonel Cyrille Serge Atonfack Guemo, detailing the alleged abuses and requesting answers to specific questions. Atonfack did not reply.

Since 2016, Cameroon’s English-speaking regions have been in the throes of a political and security crisis between armed separatist groups seeking independence for their self-proclaimed state of Ambazonia, comprising the North-West and South-West regions, and the Cameroonian security forces. The violence has caused about 6,000 deaths and a major humanitarian crisis, with almost 600,000 people internally displaced within the Anglophone and neighboring regions, and over 77,000 forced to become refugees in Nigeria.

Both Cameroonian security forces and armed separatist groups have committed serious human rights abuses but have faced limited or no consequences. Impunity remains a key driver of the crisis, emboldening abusers, and fueling further harm and violence.

On July 19, speaking from Bamenda, the capital of the North-West region, while appointing new generals to command troops fighting separatists, Joseph Beti Assomo, Cameroon’s defense minister, said that the military should take all necessary precautions to prevent human rights violations during operations and hold those responsible for abuses accountable.

In a June 7 news release, Atonfack, the army spokesman, acknowledged military responsibility for the killings in Missong village and announced that an investigation had been opened. Promising to investigate violations is a positive step, but the Cameroonian government has failed to make good on previous such commitments, Human Rights Watch said.

More than two years after the massacre of 21 civilians, including 13 children, in Ngarbuh, North-West region, by Cameroonian soldiers, and the government’s acknowledgement of military responsibility, the trial of those accused of involvement in the killings has dragged on. This slow pace raises concerns about the justice system’s efficiency and ability to deliver justice to the victims and fight impunity.

The crisis in the Anglophone regions has received little media and international attention and has been considered one of the most neglected worldwide. In her June 8 briefing to the United Nations Security Council on the situation in the central African region, Assistant Secretary-General for Africa Martha Pobee urged “the international community to step up support to national efforts toward a peaceful resolution” of the Anglophone crisis. On July 25 and 26, French President Emmanuel Macron visited Cameroon, and met with his counterpart Paul Biya. Macron did not publicly address crucial human rights issues, including human rights abuses committed by both security forces and separatist groups in the Anglophone regions.

“Cameroon’s international partners, including the African Union and United Nations, should insist that there can be no peace in the Anglophone regions without justice,” Allegrozzi said. “Cameroon’s bilateral partners should send a strong and clear message to the Cameroonian government that engaging in atrocities with impunity has consequences.”

For more details on recent abuses and accounts from victims and witnesses, please see below.

Arbitrary Detention and Other Abuses

On April 24, BIR soldiers detained and severely beat between 30 and 40 motorbike riders who were part of a funeral convoy heading to Oku from Ndop, suspecting the motorcycle riders of being separatist fighters. The soldiers took them to their base in Ndop and divided them into two groups. Twenty-three were transferred to the BIR base in Bafut, about 44 kilometers from Ndop, where they were held for approximately three weeks incommunicado.

Then, they were moved to two gendarmerie stations in Bamenda, where they were held for another five days. On May 21, all 23 were transferred to Bamenda’s central prison, where they remain. They have been taken before the Bamenda’s military court at least twice since May but are yet to be formally charged, and their trial has not started.

The situation or whereabouts of the approximately 7 to 17 men other detained on April 24 in Ndop has not been revealed and they are presumed forcibly disappeared, as they were last seen in military custody in April.

Human Rights Watch spoke to two motorbike riders who were at the Ndop BIR base on April 24, to five relatives of three motorbike riders currently held at Bamenda’s central prison, and to a relative of one of those missing.

A 22-year-old bike rider who had been at the base said:

The BIR stopped us in the middle of the road. They selected those whom they suspected to be amba fighters [separatist fighters]. Some were chosen because they had dreadlocks, others because the BIR said they had their pictures on file and they knew they were amba boys [separatist fighters]. The soldiers started beating them with a hammer, kicking them with their boots. After more than four hours like this, the BIR took them to their base, in Ndop. As a president of the motorbike riders’ union, I followed them there. I wanted to speak with the BIR commander to negotiate their release. I wanted to tell him that these people were not amba fighters, but ordinary men. Instead, the soldiers beat me and kicked me.

A female student whose 20-year-old brother is among those in Bamenda central prison said:

As soon as I was informed that my brother had been arrested, I started looking for him. I went to all police and gendarmerie stations in Bamenda, but I couldn’t find him. I was very worried. For about 10 days, I had no news about him. I thought he had been killed. Then, someone told me that he was detained at Bafut BIR camp. So, I went there, but the soldiers refused me access. They did not confirm he was held there but said that I should wait in Bamenda because “they will be taken there”.

The uncle of a 22-year-old man who is among the disappeared said:

My nephew is missing. We don’t know where he is now. The last time he was seen was at BIR base in Ndop. That’s what other motorbike riders told me. I went to the Bafut BIR base, but the soldiers told me he wasn’t there. Rumors circulated that he was held at the gendarmerie station in Kumbo. So, I went there, but I didn’t find him. I searched for him in Bamenda, at multiple police, and gendarmerie stations, no avail. I am very worried. I hope we find him alive.

Abusive Military Operation in Belo

Five witnesses described a three-day army operation in and around the town of Belo from June 9 to 11, during which the security forces summarily killed 47-year-old Ndifoin Clement, known as Bo Luh, injured a 33-year-old man, burned at least 12 homes, destroyed a community health center, and looted at least 10 shops.

The Killing of Bo Luh

A 29-year-old woman who lives in Belo’s Njinkfuin neighborhood described what happened when soldiers killed Bo Luh and burned his home on June 10:

The soldiers came in the morning, shooting. I saw them going toward Bo Luh’s home. I hid in the house and watched. I saw smoke and flames coming out from that house. They [the soldiers] burned it. When they [the soldiers] left, I went there and found Bo Luh’s body on the ground. He had been shot in the back. I ran away and waited until about 4 p.m. Meantime, Bo Lu’s body had been taken to his family’s home. I went there and helped relatives washing and dressing the body. I saw a bullet wound on the right side of the back.

Human Rights Watch also reviewed five pictures showing Bo Luh’s body and a 28-second video showing Bo Luh’s home after the burning. Witnesses and Belo residents told Human Rights Watch that soldiers targeted Bo Luh because they suspected him of having ties with separatist fighters.

Soldiers also shot a 33-year-old man in the right leg in Belo, injuring him. The victim, who asked to remain anonymous, said:

At about 3 a.m., I was coming back home from a wake, when I was caught by the soldiers. I was riding my motorbike. They shot at me at close range. I fell off the motorbike, but I managed to run away. I heard a soldier saying in French: “Je l’ai raté” [I missed him]. I went to the Mbingo Baptist hospital where I underwent surgery to extract the bullet. I was discharged seven days later.

Looting and Burning of Property

A humanitarian worker living at Belo’s Njinkfuin neighborhood said that he saw soldiers ransacking several stores on June 10: “They broke into shops and looted what they found, electronics, drinks, food. I saw them loading these items on their trucks. Up to 10 stores were looted.”

Another Njinkfuin resident said that soldiers burned homes on June 10 and 11 in his neighborhood, as well as in nearby areas, including Aboh, Ashing, Bobong, and Sho. He said:

The BIR and regular army soldiers entered Belo with up to 13 armored vehicles. They came to the area where I live shooting indiscriminately. On June 10, they burned four houses: one at Njinkfuin and three at Aboh. On June 11, they burned two houses in Ashing, three in Sho, and three more in Bobong. I filmed some of the burned homes.

The destroyed rooftop of a house burned by Cameroonian soldiers in Belo’s Bobong neighborhood on June 11, 2022
The destroyed rooftop of a house burned by Cameroonian soldiers in Belo’s Bobong neighborhood on June 11, 2022. © Private, Belo, North-West region, Cameroon, June 12, 2022

Human Rights Watch reviewed 29 photographs and 9 videos showing the burning of homes in these areas and consistent with accounts provided by witnesses.

Billy Burton, from the Cameroon Database of Atrocities, a nonpartisan group of academic researchers and civic leaders, analyzed a 1-minute and 14-second video posted on Facebook showing a burned building. He geolocated the video in Sho, one of the areas targeted by the soldiers during their abusive operation, and reviewed satellite images showing the building intact before June 6 and burned out after that date.

A June 14 report by prominent Cameroonian human rights group, Centre for Human Rights and Democracy in Africa, also documents the military abuses in Belo, including the burning of homes, and looting of stores.

Destruction, Looting of a Community Health Center

A 43-year-old doctor said that soldiers attacked, damaged, and looted the health center where he used to work on June 10.

At about 9 a.m., I was at the health center with four patients. We heard gunshots. Suddenly, a bullet passed through the wall of the room where we were sitting. Blocks of the wall started falling down, as more bullets hit the wall. The room became dusty. We hid under the beds. Then, soldiers broke into the health center by destroying two iron doors. They took the patients out. They also took me out at gunpoint. They asked me questions about the amba [separatist fighters], like “Where are they? Do you know their positions?”. They intimidated and threatened me with harm. Then, they started looting what they found in the center and ordered me to pack it.


Abusive Military Operation in Chomba

On June 8, regular army soldiers and BIR soldiers carried out an operation in Chomba searching for armed separatist fighters. During the operation, they arrested at least one woman and her 11-year-old foster child and burned a house. On June 12, they occupied, vandalized, and looted the local health center. Human Rights Watch spoke to three witnesses to the incident, two relatives, and the lawyer of those arrested, and reviewed a 46-second video showing the house set ablaze by the soldiers.

It is not the first time the military conducted abusive operations in Chomba, which is in a separatist-held area. Human Rights Watch documented that on December 10, 2021, BIR soldiers searched door-to-door in Chomba, gathered about 80 residents in the village square, accused them of harboring separatist fighters, and threatened them with death. The soldiers forcibly disappeared four villagers, two of them women, during the raid. They were found dead by villagers on December 29, 2021, with apparent gunshot wounds to their heads.

Arbitrary Detention and Extortion

During the military operation on June 8, soldiers arrested an 11-year-old boy and his foster mother. “Nobody knew where they had been taken, and for 24 hours we thought they had been killed, we were worried,” a friend of their said. “Then, someone told me they had been taken to the BIR base in Bafut, so I informed the child’s biological parents, who went there.”

The child’s biological mother said:

I went with my husband and an uncle to the BIR base in Bafut, on June 9. The military only allowed my husband and uncle in. They saw the child from a window but did not talk to him. They did not see the child’s foster mother. They discussed with one BIR officer who said we should give him 500,000 CFA [USD $777] to release the child. So, on June 10, before 3 p.m., we raised the money and gave it to him. But he didn’t release my boy.

The lawyer representing the child and his foster mother told Human Rights Watch that the two were illegally detained at the BIR base in Bafut, about 25 kilometers from Chomba, from June 8 to July 3, when they were transferred to a gendarmerie station in Bamenda. He said that the child was released on July 3, while the mother was transferred to Bamenda’s central prison on July 14 on charges of secession.

Occupation, Looting of the Local Health Center (June 12)

A nurse working at the Mbachongwa integrated health center – the only medical facility in Chomba and its surrounding villages – said that in the morning of June 12, more than 100 soldiers invaded the health center, vandalized it, looted important medical equipment and drugs, and occupied it until the following day. Two other Chomba residents and a local religious authority corroborated the account of the incident to Human Rights Watch.

The nurse said:

A four-month-pregnant woman came to my home for medical attention on June 12 at around 10 a.m. She was in a lot of pain, but I couldn’t take her to the health center because the soldiers had invaded it and I was afraid. In the evening, as the woman continued to be very sick, I found courage and took her to the health center. Soldiers initially pushed us back, then let us in.

When I got into the center, I was shocked. Everything had been turned upside down. The mattresses were spread all over the place. The soldiers were everywhere, in all the rooms and wards, they were smoking, chatting, drinking, talking, cooking. I looked for the instruments I needed to check on the pregnant woman but didn’t find any. The soldiers had taken them away. I went back home feeling desperate. The following morning the soldiers left. I called the doctor. We went back to the center, only to find out that the miliary had stolen important medical equipment and drugs.

From HRW

BELOW IS THE STORY OF THE DESTRUCTION IN BELO

END THIS GENOCIDE NOW: CORPSES LITTER RIVERS, VILLAGES AND STREETS IN ENGLISH CAMEROON(AMBAZONIA)

In its 6th year, with no end in sight, victory impossible as earlier warned by the international community, the French Cameroun, soldiers backed by France, have intensified the executions in English-Cameroon(Ambazonia) unseen in any recent conflict. Alarmed by the silence of the church, international community, the vulnerable English-speaking press in Kamerun, is staying mute no more. Conversant of the consequences which is silent disappearance like their colleague Simon Wazizi, the Post Newspaper is biting the bullet. In its latest edition, the paper describes the stench from decomposing corpses in villages and rivers executed by the French Cameroun soldiers backed by France and the West in English Cameroon. Corroborating the paper, reports in Kumbo, Bafut, Bamenda and other areas see families narrate how their relatives were simply picked up in their sleep and if lucky their corpses will be seen for burial. Communities report how they have been busy burying corpses dumped in their vicinities and rivers by French Cameroun soldiers.

“My brother was arrested by these soldiers at home. I was sleeping with him, till today I have not heard about him. Its been two months now.” A tearful man in his thirties narrates. His mother’s plea to the Presbyterian church where his son used to worships has fallen on deaf ears. “The moderator is the one helping these soldiers to kill us.” an observer in the village of Bali chimes. “He lied about a Christian killed in the church here by the French Cameroun soldiers, the angry woman continues. She is referring to a Christian – Mrs. Numvi. Read her story here.

Corpse Flooding in a River in Bafut, English-Cameroon, killed and dumped by French Cameroun Soldiers

Below is the image of one of the Atrocity Crimes Committed by the French Cameroun soldiers this week in Kumbo. Two civilians burnt in their sleep.

TARGETED KILLINGS SINCE 2016: Former U.S Ambassador to Cameroon, Henry Balerin, as the sole diplomat horrified by the atrocities attempted to walk a fine line by describing the genocide as “targeted killings of anglophonesThese “targeted killings” are evident in the killings and burning mostly in rural areas in English-speaking Cameroon, where the French-Speaking population is unlikely to be present. However, there are overwhelming evidence of genocide. These incorporates asking  entire villages to leave or be exterminated, calling English-speaking people dogs or terrorists (Click here), scorching entire communities (Click here),killing of innocent civilians (and justifying their extermination with fake Dane guns), mass raping (Click here) and purposeful humiliation like asking citizens to swim in mud, (Click here)among others.

These crimes have largely been under-reported by organizations that governments around the world depend on for informed decisions such as Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, International Crisis Group, Genocide Watch among others. These organizations that are still to independently and thoroughly investigate these killings continue to use fake figures from the government of Cameroun that has no credibility in the eyes of its own subjects, talk less of the global community. Despite social media evidence of these crimes, the continuous use of these fake figures have helped to an extent to reduce the conflict to a courtyard feud of two kids, thus providing cover for the continuous extermination of the English-speaking population with no remorse. Bold face lies of recent by the French-speaking Cameroun government include denial of its soldiers executing innocent women and children in the Northern part of the country (BBC, Click here), denial of killings of men-of-God among others (Read more at globalgong website). At least 33,000 have been killed since 2016.