Rights group Human Rights Watch has accused Cameroonian soldiers
of “killings”, “arbitrary detentions” as well as “looting” of villages and health centres in the North-West region.
The report by HRW accused government soldiers of summarily killing at least 10 people and carrying out other abuses between 24 April and 12 June, during armed operations against separatists in the anglophone region.
The troops also reportedly torched 12 homes, destroyed and looted health facilities, arbitrarily detained at least 26 people, and are presumed to have forcibly disappeared up to 17 others.
Since 2016, Cameroonian troops have been engaging various factions of separatists waging a guerrilla war in the predominantly Anglophone North-West and South-West regions in a bid to establish a breakaway “Ambazonian” state.
The separatists accuse the largely francophone administration of President Paul Biya of marginalising and discriminating against Cameroon’s English-speaking minority.
Source: BBC