Anglophone Crisis: Army Admits Killing 9 Civilians In Menchum

Cameroon’s Ministry of defense has admitted that government soldiers killed 9 civilians on Wednesday June 1, in the locality of Missong.

Missing is situated in Fungom in the Menchum Subdivision, restive Northwest Region of Cameroon.

In a release signed today June 7th, 2022, the Head of the Communication Division at the Ministry of Defense, Atonfack Guemo Cyrille Serge revealed that four elements of the defense and security forces were dispatched to Missong, to search for their missing colleague when they ended up killing 9 civilians.

Atonfack in his well known attitude of denying the obvious, attributed the killings to “the hostility of the villagers and their refusal to cooperate.”

This according to him forced the soldiers to target the population.

He described the move as “a hasty reaction of self-protection.”

“…In the middle of the night during the hunt, the latter ran into a group of deviant villagers,” Atonfack said.

Among the 9 villagers killed were 4 women and an 18-month-old girl who were all buried the following day by inhabitants.

A 12-month-old girl was as well injured in the operation, after which she was transferred to the district General Hospital in Wum.

“The Minister Delegate at the Presidency in charge of Defence deeply regrets this serious and unfortunate incident and extends his heartfelt condolences to the bereaved families,” Atonfack stated, yet failed to stipulate what would be done to stop a repeat of such action, or how the victims would be compensated.

According to the ministry of defense, the 4 elements have been placed under arrest at the Bamenda Gendarmerie company, in connection with the killings.

An investigation, it added, has been opened by the local administration and judicial authorities, alongside the defense and security forces to shed more light on the incident.

Many however fear nothing will be done in this light. Like in past instances of military killing civilians, the identity of the assailants has been kept hidden and another investigation promised.

None has ever yielded any fruits. A case worth recalling is that of Ngarbuh and the Far North Region where women and children were killed — but no justice has been served.

By Amina Hilda.