Cameroonian army killed nine civilians in English-speaking west: HRW

Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Thursday accused the Cameroonian army of killing nine civilians, including a six-year-old girl, in a raid last month in a troubled English-speaking western village of the country.

The charge relates to an incident on January 10 where the army, which fights armed separatists in the region, said it was a fight with “terrorists”. He dismissed the HRW report as “biased … (and) distorted”.

“Witnesses said more than 50 soldiers … entered Mautu on foot at around 2 pm on January 10 and started shooting indiscriminately as people fled,” HRW said.

“Witnesses said the soldiers killed nine people, including a 50-year-old woman and a six-year-old girl, and went house to house looking for separatist fighters and weapons, threatening residents and looting them. people’s goods, “said in a statement.

On the same day, several videos and photos were posted on social media, including one clearly showing a slaughtered woman and child. Another showed several men lying on the ground.

HRW said the footage “matched the victims filmed with descriptions of victims allegedly killed” and concluded “that the videos were captured within hours of the attack.”

On January 11, the army denied killing civilians in Mautu, claiming it had carried out a “preemptive” raid on “the positions of terrorist groups”.

“Armed individuals … immediately opened fire” on the soldiers, who “inflicted an appropriate response on them,” army spokesman Cyrille Serge Atonfack Guemo said at the time, adding that the army had acted in “strict compliance with the rules of engagement.”

“Several terrorists have been neutralized, others have been injured or put to flight,” he said.

In a written response to AFP on Thursday, the spokesperson called the HRW report a “biased account … a usual jumble of selected fragments of distorted facts.”

France, a former influential colonial power, issued a statement on January 12 to “condemn the attack” on Mautu, which it said claimed the lives of eight civilians. He did not assign blame.

Three days later, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres also highlighted the incident and said he had “taken note of the government’s willingness to open an investigation”.

The army has promised to conduct a “detailed investigation” but it has not yet been made public.

Bloodshed

Mautu is found in the South West region, which along with the neighboring North West region is home to Cameroon’s English speaking minority.

In 2017, resentment after years of perceived discrimination from the French-speaking majority resulted in a declaration of independence from the English-speaking radicals.

Their self-proclaimed state, Ambazonia, has not been internationally recognized and the central government in Yaoundé has responded with a crackdown.

Civilians are often trapped in the fighting, suffering at the hands of both sides, say international aid organizations and the UN.

To date, more than 3,000 people have died and over 700,000 have fled their homes during the conflict.

On December 17, a trial opened in Yaoundé against three soldiers accused of killing 13 civilians in the village of Ngarbuh, in the North-West region, in February 2020.

The government initially denied responsibility for the deaths of civilians.

He attributed the deaths to an “unfortunate accident” that occurred when a fuel tank exploded during a shootout between soldiers and “terrorists”.

The UN says 23 civilians were killed in the incident, including 15 children and two pregnant women.