The government of Cameroon has accepted killing in Mautu village; Muyuka subdivision in the South West region of Cameroon Sunday, January 10th, 2021.
In a release signed by the head of the communication unit at the ministry of defense Monday, January 11th, Navy Captain Atonfack Guemo Cyrille Serge says “…some terrorists were neutralized, others who were injured took to their heels. Weapons and munitions were recovered.”
Though the government claims responsibility for killing those it describes as terrorists, it, however, distances itself from gruesome images of civilians killed in Mautu same time and same day elements of the 21st motorized infantry battalion carried out a raid in Mautu.
“A high command has prescribed a thorough investigation to clarify these obscure machinations and to shed light if necessary on the content of the gruesome images in circulation,” Navy Captain Atonfack Cyrille Serge added.
A witness in Mautu village says a total of nine civilians including an old woman and a baby girl were killed when military men raided the small village in Muyuka subdivision.
Cameroon’s military says Ambazonia boys opened fire on the soldiers while in the midst of civilians as soldiers entered the village in their vehicles, description people in Mautu village has rated as misleading. To them, military men entered the village on foot shooting indiscriminately as a means to punish locals for hosting separatists in the village.
The military raid in Mautu village is the second in less than six months. This has caused some people to flee the area.
Mimi Mefo Info recalls that when soldiers killed over 21 civilians, including children and pregnant women, in Ngarbuh on February 14, 2020, it tried to cover up the crime until international pressure was brought to bear.
The government then admitted the extra-judicial killings and three of the soldiers who carried out the act are standing trial before the military court.
Sunday’s Mautu military killings may just be another Ngarbuh playing out.
Mbatho Ntan.
