Armed conflict in North West, South West:
Army ‘swims dry’, denies Bafanji, Ekuru killings

Cameroon’s army has in its usual fashion dismissed reports it recently carried out extrajudicial killings in some parts of the country’s Anglophone regions.

Locals of Bafanji in the Ngoketunjia Division however say the army’s latest release on the armed conflict fails to paint a true image of the reality.

In a statement on June 10, Army Spokesman Captain Cyrille Serge Atonfack said images circulating on social media depicting Killings by soldiers were false.

“The publishers of these gruesome online photographs attributed the alleged massacres to elements of the Defence and Security Forces, also accusing them of having murdered in cold blood several civilians on 1st and 5th June 2021 in the North-West Region, respectively in the localities of EKURU in AKO subdivision, DONGA-MANTUNG Division, and BAFANJI in BALIKUMBAT Subdivision, NGOKETUNJIA Division,” the release noted.

To the spokesperson, “the above claim is a hoax, an absolute hoax”.

He however accepted that there has been an armed exchange with Ambazonian fighters on the said Tuesday, 1st June 2021.

“The report of the violent clash indicates 04 terrorists neutralized, others on the run, and several war weapons, accessories and ammunition recovered,” he claimed.

One resident of Bafanji says the army’s declaration, is “a lie from the kit of hell”.

“… I am very certain about soldiers killing innocent civilians in my hometown,” he says.

Opting to stay anonymous for his own safety, he explains that a total of five persons were shot dead by soldiers.

“Of the five people killed, I know four of them very well. One of the is my brother…,” he adds.

The military’s denial of its latest acts of barbarism in the North West and South West regions adds salt to injury. Over three thousand have been killed in the last four years of the armed conflict, with a majority of them being civilians.

Several hundreds of thousands have also been displaced.

Mimi Mefo Info

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