Cameroon has distinguished herself in the domain of human rights violation in 2018.
The US state department has published its 2018 Human Rights report on Cameroon.
The 45 page report duels on human rights abuses perpetrated in the course of the Anglophone crisis in the North West and South West Regions and the war against book Haram insurgency in the Far North Region.
The report points cases of arbitrary and unlawful killings by the military and Anglophone militia men called the Ambazonian Fighters in the Anglophone regions of Cameroon.
To illustrate this, the report mentioned the brutal killings of twenty seven civilians in Menka village Santa sub division of the North West region of Cameroon by the military.
A similar unlawful killing of Thomas Ashu Nkongho principal of Government Bilingual High School Kossala – Kumba and the Divisional Officer for Batibo by separatist forces called the Ambazonians.
The disappearance of people equally constitutes a key aspect of human rights violation in Cameroon according to the report of US State department.
The report indicates that bodies of those who disappear were later found along the streets and bushes either fresh or in a stage of decomposition.
This mostly happened to people who were suspected of supporting the fight for the restoration of Ambazonian statehood.
In Kumba South West region of Cameroon, the president of a local Human Rights Non Governmental Organization called Frontline Fighters for Citizens Interest (FFCI) disappeared.
Mr. Franklin Mowha was kidnapped on the 6th of August 2018 as he set out to investigate human rights violation in Kumba.
Torture of both civilians and detainees was practiced by government agents and the military to silent those critical of the regime.
The report of US State department on human rights violation in Cameroon, laments that government has seldom taken measures to investigate such crimes but punishments have never been made public thus giving room to impunity.
Beside arbitrary arrest of people and poor detention conditions, the government of Cameroon in the year 2018 did not pay financial compensation as stipulated by the law to hundreds of people arrested and detained for months without any reason and later released.
Long detention period without trial:
The report quotes among other cases the detention of Ayuk Tabe Julius Sisiku and other leaders of the self proclaimed state of Ambazonia for nine months incommunicado under deplorable conditions.
This, the report concludes retards trial process and thus, obliges people to suffer unjustly.
In the domain of press freedom in Cameroon in the year 2018, US state department noticed that journalists who reported on the atrocities of the military were hunted and arrested arbitrary. The report quotes the detention and later condemnation of Thomas Awah Junior of Aghem Magazine, Akumbom Elvis and many others.
The government of Cameroon failed in its role of ensuring property restitution to people who saw both landed and movable property destroyed in the process of executing government’s projects.
An increase in the number of political prisoners, poor and long periods of trials and denial of fair trial aggravated human rights violations in Cameroon in the year 2018 .
This has urged some political commentators to describe Cameroon as a laboratory of human rights violation in 2018.
Picture : Paul Biya Swearing to respect the rights of Cameroonians and democratic values.
Dominic Meme Nwakimo
Mimi Mefo Info
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