By Talla Aghaa and Daniella Ngum in Kumba
Two years after the January 2018 military raids in Kwakwa, a village in Cameroon’s South-West Region, Barrister Nkongho Felix Agbor Balla, President of the Centre for Human Rights and Democracy in Africa suggests the State Forces may have committed war crimes.
Cameroon’s military subjected local civilians in Kwakwa to “collective punishment” through ground attacks, detentions that led to torture or extrajudicial executions, and the razing of the entire village, according to the head of the Buea-based rights group.
Barrister Agbor Nkongho, himself a victim of the ongoing socio-political unrest in Cameroon’s North-West and South-West Regions says over two years on, he has found that clashes between the military and armed groups in the two regions reignited in the wake of the military atrocities in Kwakwa worsened significantly from January 2018 to June 2020. Hundreds of Anglophone civilians have been killed in the fighting and more than a million people have been displaced.
“The world’s attention may have moved away from Cameroon’s Anglophone regions since the 2018 burnings and killings in Kwakwa, but civilians continue to pay a high price. The military’s ongoing assault on civilians in the North-West and South-West regions has been widespread and systematic, likely amounting to crimes against humanity,” Agbor Nkongho, President/Founder of the Centre for Human Rights and Democracy in Africa, told The SUN.
“Alarm bells should be ringing: the ongoing killing, looting and burning bear all the hallmarks of the military’s signature tactic of collective punishment, which it has repeatedly used against Anglophone minorities across the country.”
Over two years on, eyewitnesses described the attacks on locations where “only civilians appear to have been present” as extremely traumatic, leaving many unable to sleep or unwilling to return to their homes out of fear that they would be targeted again.
It all started with the killing of the 3rd class Chief of Ngongo village, HRH Chief Ekebe Johannes, in Mbonge Sub-Division in the wee hours of Friday, January 12, 2018 during the funeral of Chief Tukwa Manfred of Kwakwa. The SUN gathered that the killing was carried out by separatist fighters active in Kwakwa and its environs. Following the killing, 30 military trucks and pick-ups with armed-to-the-teeth soldiers stormed Kwakwa the next day.
Kwa Kwa village razed to the ground
A 96 –year –old woman, Mami Appih Paulina, was consumed by the fire in her house as she was unable to flee like others; the same fate befell an alleged mentally deranged, Tebeck Felix.
The Assistant Parish Priest of St Paul Catholic Church of Kwa Kwa, Rev. Father Ndode Emmanuel equally escaped death as the entire presbytery was equally set ablaze by elements of the Cameroon military. Reports hold that the priest was in Kumba for Cathedral duties. Veteran Journalist and one of Cameroon Association of English Speaking Journalist, CAMASEJ’s founding fathers, Dat William Diony said four of his permanent buildings had gone up in flames. Property and money belonging to the inhabitants, most of whom are farmers was allegedly consumed by the fire.
The family home of Belgium-based Tanyi Emmanuel Enoh was also touched. The 44-year-old is said to be an ardent sympathizer of the Anglophone struggle against marginalization. He is known to have attended several anti-government rallies in Europe to protest against 87-year-old Paul Biya who has ruled Cameroon since 1982.
Relatives of Tanyi Emmanuel Enoh are among many Anglophones currently taking up refuge in the heart of the forest for fear of being killed by state forces in their collective punishment pursuit and scorth earth policy. Today, Kwa-Kwa remains deserted and it remains unclear how soon a return to normalcy could be envisaged.
Military raids have multiplied against secessionists and their sympathizers and the battle will sure be long.
Extrajudicial executions, looting and burning
Barrister Agbor Nkongho told The SUN that the military regularly carries out arbitrary detentions of civilians based on their being Anglophones or because of their suspected support of anti-government and secessionist groups. Some detainees “have been tortured, forcibly disappeared or extrajudicially executed,” Agbor said.
The human rights lawyer specifically pointed to an incident that drew international condemnation in Ngarbuh, a locality in Cameroon’s North-west Region on 14 February 2020, when the military killed at least 21 civilians including 3 children and two pregnant women and buried their bodies in mass graves. Houses were also burnt.
While the there is a warrant of arrest for the likes of Tanyi Emmanuel Enoh, Kale Dante, Mark Bareta, Tapang Ivo Tanku, Capo Daniel and many more, the victims of displacement are forced to shelter in “dire conditions,” while aid workers are obstructed by the military from providing them access to much-needed food and health care.
“Donors and humanitarian organizations must significantly scale up aid to civilians in Cameroon’s North-West Region, and the military must halt all restrictions on aid delivery,” said Agbor Balla.
“The military’s ongoing crimes against civilians reflect decades-long patterns of abuse and flagrant impunity. The international community — including the A.U. and U.N. member states — must tackle this festering crisis now. The U.N. Security Council must impose a comprehensive arms embargo on Cameroon and refer the situation to the International Criminal Court.”