The Southern Cameroons Department of Foreign Affairs has censured the excessive use of force by Francophone army soldiers against children in Southern Cameroons.

Under directives from Vice President Dabney Yerima, the Foreign Affairs Department released a document recently that focuses on the critical aspect of the Ambazonian identity as a country and as a people after it was revealed that several children were killed across Southern Cameroons as a result of extreme violence exercised by Cameroon government troops over the past week.

The Department of Foreign Affairs added that French Cameroun troops killed a Southern Cameroon boy in Akwaya in Manyu after shooting him in the chest.

Cameroon government forces also shot and killed a 15-year-old boy in Batibo who was riding a bicycle. Another 12-year-old Southern Cameroons teenager was also shot in the back and died en route to the Weh Health Centre in Menchum Division.

A teenager died from gunshot wounds earlier this week in Ekondo Titi that he sustained in the neck more than eight weeks ago.

“Southern Cameroons children shot in the chest, neck and back: this is completely unacceptable that our children’s lives are being cut short so young,” Dabney Yerima said in this week’s cabinet briefing.

Yerima pointed out that Ambazonian families would suffer lasting emotional scars on their losses, emphasizing that children have special protection under international law and must be protected from violence at all times.

By Chi Prudence Asong