Human Rights Day: Canadian research group names perpetrators of atrocities in Cameroon’s crisis-hit Anglophone regions

By David Atangana.

Fresh atrocities committed by government soldiers and armed separatists (Ambazonia fighters) and herdsmen in the raging armed conflict in Cameroon’s Anglophone regions have been brought to light.

A Canadian-based organisation, Cameroon Anglophone Database of Atrocities in a release dated December 9, 2022, presented investigated and verified atrocities committed by parties to the armed conflict. The database has been chronicling alleged atrocities committed in the crisis-hit regions in the course of the conflict.

This database which is apolitical and non-partisan, records atrocities that are found to violate domestic or international laws and rules of war.

The facts and figures were released, according to the research group, ahead of the ‘World Human Rights Day’ to be commemorated today, Saturday, December 10, 2022.

The report covers the period from 2020 to 2022.

The research into the atrocities was carried out in partnership with the Center for Human Rights and Democracy in Africa (CHRDA) and a network of higher institutions of learning.

According to the research group, defense and security forces allegedly burnt down seven villages while armed separatists launched six attacks against educational establishments and burnt down a hospital.

Armed Fulani herdsmen are also implicated

“A raid and burning of homes in Bekondo village in Meme Division occurred on December 21, 2020. Sources identified the
Cameroon military as the perpetrator”, reported the database research group in a separate list of verified atrocities.

The list also said the Cameroon military was responsible for the burning of several buildings in Kikaikom near Kumbo on October 7, 2021; the destruction of civilian homes and Livestock in Bali Nyonga on January 17, 2020; burning of Mbalangi Village on the night of February 3-4, 2021.

While faulting the military and Fulani herdsmen for killing a young man in Adere on October 20, 2020, the report said the defense forces claimed responsibility for the killing of some four young boys in the Meta Quarter of Bamenda on January 23, 2021.

Armed Ambazonia separatist fighters on the other hand were largely accused of attacks on learning institutions. Schools and students were repeatedly targeted.

“A school in Bali was burned on July 15, 2021. The Buffalos of Bali Nyonga, linked to the Ambazonia Restoration Forces, took responsibility, claiming it was used by the BIR. The Database found no evidence to confirm this claim,”, the database group said in the list of atrocities specifying that it was GS Bali, a government primary school.

Other learning institutions that suffered the same fate include; Queen of the Rosary College, Okoyong reduced to ashes on February 11, 2022; GPPS Molyko, Group 1, Buea burnt down on February 7-8,2022; Kulu Memorial College, Limbe on November 2020 and PSS Mankon on August 21, 2022 ahead of school resumption.

Noting that at Kulu Memorial College students were forced out of class to undress and flee before setting the school on fire, the report also said in Buea, “Students going to school were confronted by separatist fighters and forced to strip naked at gunpoint on January 13, 2022. Video and photo evidence implicate the Fako Mountain Lions of ‘General Sagat’ and a member of Southern Cameroons Defense Forces.”

The Mamfe hospital allegedly serving about 85,000 people burnt down on June 18, 2022, and the Mbororo community of Mbohngong set on fire on April 6, 2022, was also placed on the shoulders of separatist fighters.

It should be recalled that the death toll in the conflict according to the UN is estimated at at least 4000 deaths.

The crisis has been ranked the most neglected by the Norwegian Refugee Council three consecutive times.

ABOUT CAMEROON ANGLOPHONE DATABASE OF ATROCITIES.

Database of Atrocities, a volunteer initiative hosted at the University of Toronto, collects and verifies information on atrocities being perpetrated in Cameroon’s Anglophone conflict.

It aims to counter impunity; deter further violence; and store information for future international justice processes and a possible national truth, justice, and reconciliation commission.

The Database has received over 900 submissions to date. Where the level of evidence permits, the team investigates submitted incidents and produces verification reports.

The Database team includes volunteer researchers at the Edinburgh International Justice Initiative, the University of Exeter, Leiden University, and the University of Toronto, with support from CHRDA and the Anglophone Crisis Monitoring Project.