The NGO Human Rights Watch (HRW) accused Monday, June 27, the rebels of the English-speaking regions of Cameroon, where a deadly conflict pits armed separatist groups against the police, of committing "
serious human rights violations
".
Read alsoCameroon: six children "murdered" by "armed secessionist bands", according to the government
“
Since January 2022, armed separatist fighters have killed at least seven people, injured six others, raped a girl and committed other serious human rights violations
”, assured the NGO in a report, pointing to a “
context of renewed violence
”.
The North-West and South-West regions have been the scene for five years of a deadly conflict between armed groups demanding the independence of a state they call "
Ambazonia
" and security forces. massively deployed by the power of President Paul Biya, 89, who has ruled Cameroon with an iron fist for nearly 40 years.
Part of the Anglophone population feels ostracized by Francophones.
The conflict that has killed more than 6,000 people since the end of 2016 and forced more than a million people to move, according to the NGO International Crisis Group (ICG).
The rebels, like the soldiers and the police, are regularly accused by international NGOs and the UN of committing abuses and crimes against civilians.
3rd place for “most neglected” crises
Certain armed separatist groups regularly attack schools which they accuse of teaching in French, and kidnap or kill civil servants whom they accuse of "
collaborating
" with the central power of Yaoundé.
According to Unicef, in 2019, some 850,000 children were deprived of school in the two English-speaking regions.
The separatists "
target civilians who do not heed their calls to boycott schools
" and "
trample on the fundamental rights of an already terrorized civilian population
", according to HRW.
On June 10, suspected rebels set fire to a hospital in Mamfe, in the South West, depriving 85,000 people of access to healthcare.
"
Government forces have also committed human rights violations, including burning of villages..., murder, torture, ill-treatment, incommunicado detention and rape of civilians
," HRW said.
Read alsoCameroon: at least eight children killed in the attack on the school in an English-speaking area
In early June, nine civilians, including a baby, were killed by soldiers in the North West, the army acknowledging a "
disproportionate reaction
" from its men.
The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) placed English-speaking Cameroon in third place on the list of the ten “
most neglected
” population displacement crises in early June, based on three criteria: the lack of political will of the international community to find solutions, media coverage and funding for humanitarian needs.
