Cameroon Concord News Group office in Yaoundé has revealed that the Francophone dominated military forces arrested some 5000 Southern Cameroons teenagers amid continued aggression against Ambazonia Self Defense Forces.

Concord’s Yaoundé Bureau Chief Rita Akana wrote in a write up  that there were minors as young as 16 among the detainees.

Many of the children were arrested when Cameroon government soldiers raided towns and villages across the South West and North West Regions.

“The Biya regime is so wicked,  devilish and occultic so much that they have over 5000 boys and girls of average age of 18 years in prisons for as flimsy as lack of ID cards” Rita Akana said.

 “Most of these juveniles are mercilessly abused by regime officers as sex slave” She furthered.

Cameroon Concord News Group understands that the teenagers are being held under the practice of administrative detention, which allows Yaoundé to keep detainees behind bars without charge for an indefinite time.

Eyong Ndip, an 18-year-old boy from Mautu, told Rita Akana that he was savagely beaten when Cameroon government soldiers arrested him near his house.

Sama Peter said a group of French speaking army soldiers had chased and caught him before they assaulted him with the butts of their rifles, stomped on him with military boots, and left him bleeding from his nose in Widikum.

At the very beginning of the crisis in Southern Cameroons, French speaking gendarmerie officers detained and assaulted 17-year-old Njuma Collins and his mum at Ekondo Titi.  The Francophone soldiers pepper-sprayed and violently beat Njuma calling him “young Amba fighter”. Njuma Collins sustained injuries to his face, back, and feet.

There is a growing trend of Francophone army soldiers shooting and injuring young English speaking Cameroonian men, especially in the knee and the leg, during overnight raids across the entire Southern Cameroons.

The Vice President of the Ambazonia Interim Government Dabney Yerima recently confirmed that Cameroon government soldiers had detained 5000 children since the beginning of the war in Southern Cameroons.

According to the Ambazonia Interim Government, several Southern Cameroons minors are currently being held in New Bell and Kondengui prisons including detention centers in French Cameroun.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai with files