Amnesty International has reported that security forces, separatist rebels and ethnic militiamen – from both side of the country’s linguistic divide – have committed “atrocities” in the English-speaking regions of western Cameroon, including executions, torture and rape.
In a report released Tuesday, Amnesty International has found new evidence of abuses in the country’s Northwest Region – one of two western regions where anglophone militants declared independence from the majority francophone state in 2017.
The declaration of an independent state of Ambazonia – which has never been recognised internationally – triggered a crackdown by the government in Yaoundé.
The new investigation sheds light on militias in Cameroon’s northwest region that are drawn from the Mbororo community – Fulani herders with a long history of conflict with sedentary farmers.
Civilians caught in the cross-fire
The report says that civilians are “caught between the army, armed separatists and militias.”
“The Mbororo Fulani populations have been quickly targeted by armed separatists, in part because they are perceived as supporting the authorities in power.”
The report also documents what it says are killings, rape and property destruction by the defence and security forces themselves.
“However, for many cases, there has been no further information released, raising impunity concerns.
Witnesses ‘silenced’
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