BY EKO OLIVECHANCE LIYENGU
There is no denying the fact that the Cameroon military has continued to kill children and rape young girls. These crimes are heart-breaking.
As a Human Rights Activists with a keen interest in Child Protection Rights, after serious investigations amidst ongoing armed conflict in the North West and South West Regions, with the death toll increasing as the days go by, keeping children vulnerable following the brutal extrajudicial killings of their parents by the military, it is my humble opinion that the military must be investigated. Those found wanting, should be prosecuted to serve as deterrent to avoid future brutal killings of innocent Anglophone Cameroonians.
The cases of these extrajudicial killings by the military as narrated by victims abound.
When I visited Monica on 3 September 2021, Monica, was just 20 at the time. Opon asking her questions, she said she was afraid when she saw the Cameroon military arrived in her village, Ngie in Momo Division of the North West Region of Cameroon, and began attacking homes in retaliation for the killing of one of their soldiers by separatist fighter earlier that day. She explained to me how she grabbed her child and ran to hide in the house, but the soldiers forced the door open. They ordered her husband to lie on the floor, and told her to leave her daughter to one side. One of soldiers then raped Monica. As her husband attempted to defend her, they shot him three times: in his head.
After about an hour, they took Monica and her child outside and their house was set ablaze. They drove them to an army camp, where they were held with ten others. The youngest of them was just 13 years old.
Each day, they raped them one after the other. They were only released after spending 75 days in detention, when one of the soldiers agreed to help them and informed his commanding officer about what was happening in the camp. But by that time, two of the girls were already dead.
Narrating her ordeal, Monica told me that because of the rape, she later gave birth to twins.
Anizette is another girl whom I spoke with from Batibo still from the North West Region of Cameroon of a disgusting and heartbreaking incident that happened to her. At the time of my interview with her, she was still panicking and suffering from trauma.
She told me that she while she was having dinner with her grandparents in 2021 when the Cameroon military men suddenly entered their home, killed her grandparents and raped her.
The girl child in Cameroon remains a victim of this senseless war. When will this war end?
As an activist, I have spoken to members of government and military officials, who have consistently maintained that their troops have not committed these crimes. However, contrary evidence shows otherwise.
Despite the repeated threats on my life, I will stop at nothing to ensure that the perpetrators of these atrocities against Anie, Monica and other girls, are brought to Justice.