Cameroon violence attributed to the conflicting French and English speakers
Cameroon has been chaotic over the last three years following conflict between the government troops and separatists. The separatists are a group of protesting minority English speaking Cameroonians. The violence arose due to the minority English speaking Cameroonians being treated as second-class citizens. This is attributed to the dictatorship by the majority speaking French Cameroonians. Hence the french speakers have taken power excluding the minority group. Thus the separatists took to protests in demand for marginalization.
However, the protests resulted in violence between the separatists and national military. In an attempt to restore peace, both the separatists and national troops have violated human rights. Many have lost their lives and scores injured. Some like Nga have sought asylum in southeast Nigeria cross river state. Moreover,8000 more refugee arrivals have been confirmed. It is quite devastating as the violence is accompanied by the displacement of persons.
Anglophone Crises
Anglophone crises were triggered by protests from lawyers and teachers in 2016 in Cameroon. The protests are attributed to the rising sovereignty of french speakers. As such, they began to control the education and legal systems of the English speakers. The urge for independence by the minority group ie English speakers build up to state violence.
In an attempt to control the chaos, the national military failed. Since instead they fought the demonstrating citizens and took part in extrajudicial killings. Furthermore,they arrested the innocent.
According to UN reports, this chaos resulted in 3000 deaths and over 679000 displaced. While for the UNICEF and UN children’s fund 855000 children remain out of school following the unfortunate situation. To be precise, in the anglophone regions about 80% of schools are closed. Hence parents are longing for the day their kids would resume their studies. The displaced Cameroon citizens have settled in Nigeria in the regions of Akwa Ibom, Benue, Cross River, and Taraba.
No consensus between the two allies
The situation in Cameroon keeps worsening. The human rights group is condemning both the government troops and separatists for violating human rights. Parliament passed legislation last December which required the two parties to engage in a national dialogue. So they could reach a consensus on political and social matters to achieve equity. Nonetheless, the separatists skipped the meeting hence the violence continues.
The situation in Cameroon is deteriorating
Meanwhile, the violence is greatly impacting on the citizens in anglophone regions. For instance, on the 14th of February,21 people succumbed in Ngarbuh village. Out of which 14 were children. These killings were intentionally executed by government troops together with armed Fulani men. Moreover, they burned the bodies after assassination.
However, it’s quite traumatizing for the surviving victims especially since the government denies taking part in the inhumane acts. They say their troops were responsible for restoring peace hence did not engage in the killings. Nevertheless, President Biya has sent out a team of experts to investigate the massacres witnessed in Ngarbuh village.
Ilaria Allegrozzi, a prominent researcher for the Human Rights Watch strongly believes that the conflicts can be halted by administering justice.ie for the human rights violated.
“We continue to believe that the crisis cannot be resolved unless fundamental questions related to justice and accountability for the human rights violations committed by both sides – government forces and armed separatists – are addressed,” she explained. Although Cameroon is still a violence-stricken country.
