On Friday morning, armed men, all wearing army uniforms and some masked, according to testimony gathered by aid workers contacted by AFP, attacked the Ngarbuh neighborhood, in the village of Ntumbo, in the northwest from Cameroon, then shot and burned residents. A UN representative in the province said on Sunday that 22 civilians, including 14 children, a pregnant woman and two women carrying babies, were killed by "gunmen" .
"People called us on the phone to say that soldiers came and broke the doors, shot those who were there and burned houses," said Louis Panlanjo, resident of Ntumbo and member of a local NGO. , Monday at AFP. About 800 villagers "left to take refuge in the city center ," he added.
3,000 dead and 700,000 displaced
A bloody conflict between the security forces and English-speaking separatist armed groups has left more than 3,000 dead and 700,000 displaced in three years in the north-west and south-west regions populated mainly by the English-speaking Cameroonian minority. Both the Cameroonian army and the armed separatists have been accused by international human rights NGOs of committing atrocities and crimes against civilians in the two English-speaking regions.
Just before the legislative and municipal elections on February 9, armed separatists in the English-speaking regions of Cameroon had already kidnapped more than a hundred people, burned property and threatened voters. The state security forces are accused of not having sufficiently protected civilians from the threats posed by the separatists, and even of having committed new abuses against them during the same period.
"It is simply an unfortunate accident"
The army took three days to speak for the first time about the Ntumbo tragedy, denying the version which claims that soldiers killed 22 civilians in the English-speaking area. "It took us all weekend to investigate, that's why we only react today," argued Colonel Atonfack to AFP. "It is quite simply an unfortunate accident, a collateral consequence of security operations in the region," he added.
According to him, four soldiers and two gendarmes who were carrying out a "night reconnaissance on foot" near a house "transformed into a fortified camp" and a stock of weapons, were subjected to "heavy fire" . "Seven terrorists" were then put "out of harm's way" during this operation. The colonel concludes that "this fire caused 5 victims, including a woman and 4 children, far from what is relayed in social networks" . His words immediately caused an uproar on social networks. "Unbelievable!!!!!!!!!! Who are these monsters?!?!? Who are they?!?!?" , was thus moved on Twitter by opponent Edith Kah Walla, presidential candidate in 2011. "After denying the massacre, this is how the army treats human lives ," she tweeted again.
