The NGO Human Rights Watch (HRW) accused Thursday, August 11, the Cameroonian army of "
murders
" and "
arbitrary detentions
" in an English-speaking region where a deadly conflict has pitted armed separatist groups against the police for five years.
“
Cameroonian soldiers summarily killed at least ten people and committed several other abuses between April 24 and June 12 during counter-insurgency operations in the North West region of Cameroon
,” the NGO noted in a report. , claiming that members of the security forces "
destroyed and looted health centres, arbitrarily detained at least 26 people and allegedly forcibly disappeared some 17 others
".
six thousand dead
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 massively deployed security forces. by the power of President Paul Biya, 89, who has ruled Cameroon with an iron fist for almost 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 International Crisis Group (ICG) think tank.
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The rebels, like the soldiers and the police, are regularly accused by international NGOs and the UN of committing abuses and crimes against civilians.
HRW reported on the attack on June 1 by Cameroonian soldiers in the village of Missong, a hamlet in the North West region, which resulted in the death of nine people, including four women and an 18-year-old girl. months, "
in a retaliatory operation against a community suspected of harboring separatist fighters
".
The army then recognized a "
mistake
" and "
an inappropriate reaction, unsuited to the circumstances and manifestly disproportionate
".
“Serious human rights violations”
In June, according to HRW, security forces "
summarily killed one man, injured another, burned down at least 12 houses, destroyed a community health center and looted at least 10 shops
" in Belo.
Asked by AFP, the Ministry of Defense did not react immediately.
“
Cameroonian authorities should conduct credible and impartial investigations and hold their perpetrators to account
,” urged HRW Central Africa researcher Ilaria Allegrozzi in the report.
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The human rights NGO accused in a report published at the end of June of the rebels of the English-speaking regions of committing "
serious violations of human rights
".
The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) placed English-speaking Cameroon third on its list of the ten "
most neglected
" population displacement crises in June, based on three criteria: the lack of political will of the international community to find solutions, media coverage and funding for humanitarian needs.
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