Separatist teams in Cameroon’s Anglophone area have grow to be more and more extra violent, Human Rights Watch (HRW) mentioned in a report on Monday.
“Armed separatist teams are kidnapping, terrorizing, and killing civilians throughout the English-speaking areas with no obvious concern of being held to account by both their very own leaders or Cameroonian legislation enforcement,” Ilaria Allegrozzi, HRW’s senior central Africa researcher, mentioned within the report.
Human Rights Watch interviewed 38 victims and witnesses for the report. The marketing campaign group discovered that armed separatists had killed at the least seven folks, burned two colleges, attacked a college, raped a woman, and kidnapped as much as 82 folks since January.
How separatists prohibit citizen rights
In a single case detailed by HRW, separatists stormed a college campus, shot within the air and precipitated a stampede that injured at the least 5 folks. Fighters had been retaliating towards the college for resisting a lockdown that they had declared within the space, reported HRW.
The group additionally reported that on January 12, separatist fighters killed a taxi driver and a further civilian unconnected to the combating.
“These abusive calls trample the essential rights of an already terrorized civilian inhabitants,” HRW mentioned.
Allegrozzi known as on separatist group leaders to finish civilian abuses dedicated by their fighters:
“Leaders of separatist teams ought to instantly instruct their fighters to cease abusing civilians and hand over abusive fighters for prosecution,” mentioned Allegrozzi within the report.
Nonetheless, these actors have solely grown extra harmful as combating has gone on.
No less than 26 villagers had been additionally killed by separatists in an assault on Saturday in a village in Cameroon’s Southwest area. A further 30 villagers had been killed on Monday in one other assault in Western Cameroon, native sources advised Reuters.
Why are separatist teams combating in Cameroon?
HRW’s Allegrozzi requested that Cameroon’s regional and worldwide companions put stress on the nation’s authorities to guard civilians.
“They need to additionally impose focused sanctions, comparable to journey bans and asset freezes, on separatist leaders who bear duty for committing abuses,” Allegrozzi mentioned.
Cameroon is embattled in an ongoing civil warfare between pro-Anglophone and pro-Francophone factions within the nation. Each teams are combating to seize the nation’s English-speaking Northwest and Southwest areas. Members of Cameroon’s English talking secessionist motion hope to carve out the 2 areas and type the impartial state of Ambazonia.
Human Rights Watch shared its findings with representatives from three main separatist teams — one chief responded.
There have been greater than 6,000 casualties attributable to Cameroon’s ongoing civil warfare. Violence within the area has additionally displaced round one million folks, in keeping with the Worldwide Disaster Group (ICG) suppose tank.
asw/wd (Reuters, AFP)