Amnesty International has condemned the excessive use of military force in Southern Cameroons by soldiers loyal to the Biya Francophone regime. In its 2016/2017 annual report, the international human rights organization also denounced the numerous violations of freedom of expression in the two Anglophone Regions of Cameroon.

At the end of October, lawyers, pupils and teachers from Anglophone regions of Cameroon went on strike to protest against what they considered to be a marginalization of the Anglophone minority. Demonstrations took place in several towns in the South West and North West of the country, such as Bamenda, Kumba and Buea.

“Cameroon’s security forces arbitrarily arrested demonstrators and used excessive force to disperse them. For example, on 8 December, they killed four people by firing live ammunition at a demonstration in Bamenda, in the North West of the country, “Amnesty International said.

The organization also accused the Yaounde regime of orchestrating numerous abuses on militants of the Nigerian Islamic sect, Boko Haram detained in Cameroon including torture, deaths in detention and enforced disappearances, violation of freedom of expression, association and assembly , unfair trials, impunity, prison conditions, and the lack of respect for the rights of refugees and migrants.

Amnesty also observed that Boko Haram carried out at least 150 attacks, including 22 suicide attacks, which killed at least 260 civilians. The civilian population living around Lake Chad was targeted in a systematic way, the respectable body revealed.

By Sonne Peter