Kameruns Bürgerkrieg

[Schneemann]

Ein bislang recht wenig bekannt gewordener Konflikt: Seit Ende 2017 toben im Nordwesten Kameruns, d. h. also im Grenzgebiet zu Nigeria, Auseinandersetzungen zwischen der zentralen Staatsgewalt bzw. der kamerunischen Armee und Separatisten der sog. ADF (Ambazonia Defence Forces) und des ASC (Ambazonia Self-Defence Council) im weitgehend englischsprachigen Teil des Landes (auch als Ambazona bezeichnet). Während die offiziellen kamerunischen Streitkräfte vorgeben, einen COIN-Krieg zu führen, u. a. auch gegen Islamisten (was aber bislang nicht belegt ist), geben die Rebellen vor, sie kämpfen für die Unabhängigkeit ihres englischsprachigen und an Nigeria angelehnten Landesteils, um sich der Unterdrückung durch die Zentralgewalt zu entziehen. Was zunächst mit Krawallen begonnen hatte - obgleich die Wurzeln des Streits bis in die Zeit nach dem Ersten Weltkrieg und hin zu einem Teilungs-Referendum 1961 zurückreichen -, hat sich mittlerweile zu einem relativ ausgewachsenen Bürgerkrieg entwickelt, wobei das Gebiet Ambazonas rund 40.000 Quadratkilometer umfasst.

Leider, wie in Afrika oft der Fall, geht auch dieser Konflikt einher mit schweren Kriegsverbrechen und Menschenrechtsverletzungen (durch beide Fraktionen). Die Zahl der Opfer ist bislang kaum gesichert, grob wird von mindestens 2.000 getöteten Kämpfern und geschätzt 5.000 toten Zivilisten ausgegangen (Stand von Sommer 2020). Hinzu kommen ca. 700.000 Flüchtlinge (auch diese Zahl ist ein Jahr alt).

Kamerun

Der Kampf um Ambazona

International wenig beachtet tobt im Westen Kameruns ein Konflikt um die Rechte der anglophonen Minderheit. Geführt wird er von beiden Seiten mit großer Brutalität, und inzwischen kämpfen die Aufständischen für einen eigenen Staat.

Es ist ein Bürgerkrieg, der seit mehr als vier Jahren tobt und der doch kaum von der Weltöffentlichkeit wahrgenommen wird. Im Westen Kameruns stehen sich Separatisten und Sicherheitskräfte der Regierung in einem Konflikt gegenüber, der seine Wurzeln in seiner kolonialen Geschichte und in der Zweisprachigkeit des Landes hat. Unabhängige Organisationen berichten von schweren Menschenrechtsverletzungen, laut Vereinten Nationen sind 700.000 Menschen inzwischen auf der Flucht. Und die medizinische Versorgung in dem Konfliktgebiet ist stark eingeschränkt. […]

Die Ursachen für die Auseinandersetzungen reichen weit zurück, der Grundstein dafür wurde vor gut 100 Jahren gelegt. Nach dem ersten Weltkrieg wurde die vormalige deutsche Kolonie Kamerun zwischen Frankreich und Großbritannien aufgeteilt: Vier Fünftel des Territoriums wurden danach von Frankreich verwaltet, der westliche Teil von Großbritannien. […]

Anfang 2016 flammen Proteste gegen die mehrheitlich französischsprachige Regierung erneut auf. Der Staat reagierte mit harter Hand, es beginnt mit einer monatelangen Internetblockade. Später folgen willkürliche Verhaftungen, massive Militäreinsätze - es gibt Tote. Als Reaktion entstehen Separatistengruppen, deren Ziel die Abspaltung vom Zentralstaat und die Gründung eines eigenen Staates ist: Ambazona.

https://www.tagesschau.de/ausland/afrika...e-101.html

Schneemann.

[Schneemann]

Mal noch ein anderer Aspekt - offenkundig will man sich in keinster Weise dem Vorwurf aussetzen, man unternehme nichts gegen Islamisten. Ob dies umgelenkt und auch umgedeutet wird gegen die Aktivitäten in Ambazona bleibt abzuwarten, gut möglich, dass dies aber geschieht (ähnlich konstruierte Vorwürfe gab es in der Vergangenheit durchaus schon).

Africa

Cameroon Creates, Trains Militias Against New Terrorism Ideology

MORA - Cameroon’s President Paul Biya has sent his top military officials and a governor to reactivate old militias and create new ones to combat terrorism on the central African state’s northern border with Nigeria. The militias are, for the first time, to tell people about what the government says is a new strategy by the Islamic State in West Africa Province, or ISWAP, to attract supporters away from rival Boko Haram through gifts of food and money, and attacking only military positions, unlike Boko Haram, which attacked schools and other civilian targets. […]

Abdoul Oumar is coordinator of nine militia groups fighting Boko Haram terrorism in Mora, a town on the border with Nigeria's Borno state. Nigeria says Borno is an epicenter of the jihadist group. […] Oumar said militias that were discouraged by the lack of flashlights, motorcycles, telephones, bows and arrows, and guns to fight terrorists will now be able to resume work. He said besides moving through the bush and hills to inform the military of suspicious activities, militias are now expected to teach people not to accept gifts from unknown visitors. […] The Cameroon military says that since May, more than nine jihadist attacks have been reported on its troops’ positions. At least 25 troops and 13 civilians have been killed since May.

https://www.voanews.com/africa/cameroon-...m-ideology

Schneemann.

[Schneemann]

Images Reveal Scale of Devastation in Cameroon Anglophone Regions

New research by Amnesty International has revealed the devastating scale of destruction caused by the ongoing conflict in Cameroon's Anglophone regions. Fighting between various armed groups and the Cameroonian armed forces has continued unabated for the past three years, with civilians bearing the brunt of unlawful killings, kidnappings, and widespread destruction of houses and villages. Government intervention has been limited, and there has been near-complete silence from the international community.

Fabien Offner, Amnesty International's Central Africa Researcher says "all parties to the conflict in Cameroon's Anglophone regions have committed human rights violations and abuses, and civilians are caught in the middle". [...]

"The Cameroonian authorities must deliver on their responsibility to protect the entire population indiscriminately, and they should accept the fact-finding mission the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights has been calling for, for almost three years. The international community must publicly call on the Cameroonian authorities to urgently initiate thorough, independent, impartial investigations into allegations of human rights violations and, if there is sufficient admissible evidence, prosecute those suspected of criminal responsibility in fair trials before ordinary civilian courts without recourse to the death penalty. In addition, the international community must ensure that the humanitarian response aimed at addressing the needs of those affected by the violence, including refugees and internally displaced, is adequately funded," Offner said.

https://allafrica.com/view/group/main/ma...78937.html

Schneemann.

[Schneemann]

Four separatists sentenced to die in troubled Cameroon

Four suspected separatists in Cameroon's troubled anglophone regions have been sentenced to death over the killing of seven schoolchildren, the defence ministry announced on Friday.

A military court on Tuesday sentenced the four to "execution in public by firing squad," it said in a statement to AFP. The seven children, aged between nine and 12, were killed in October last year when armed men opened fire on their school in Kumba in the Southwest Region -- one of two western regions gripped by a long-running breakaway campaign. The four defendants were sentenced by a military tribunal in the regional capital of Buea for "acts of terrorism, hostility towards the motherland, insurrection and murder," the ministry said.

https://www.africanews.com/2021/09/10/fo...-cameroon/

Schneemann.

[Schneemann]

Interessant hierbei, dass die (offenkundig nur früheren?) Islamisten nun von Kamerun, wo die Regierung ja Gerüchte streute, auf der Seite der Separatisten stünden Islamisten, wieder nach Nigeria verschoben werden, wo sie anscheinend ganz brav entwaffnet werden...

Cameroon Repatriates Nigerian Ex-Fighters, Family Members

Yaounde — More than 850 former Boko Haram fighters and their family members who escaped from the jihadist group to Cameroon have left northern Cameroon for Nigeria. Nigerian authorities say they are taking the former militants to Nigerian disarmament centers after complaints that such centers in Cameroon were overwhelmed by the number of former jihadists defecting since the terrorist group's leader was declared killed in May.

Hundreds of people Saturday gathered along streets, watching and waving as 20 buses transporting former Boko Haram militants and their families left Mora, a town on Cameroon's northern border with Nigeria, for Banki, a town in Nigeria's Borno state.

https://allafrica.com/stories/202109210016.html

Schneemann.

[Quintus Fabius]

Da geht es so weit ich es gelesen habe auch wieder um innere Machtkämpfe und Machtverschiebungen, es gibt da ja auch mehrere Gruppen von Islamisten die untereinander auch wieder verfeindet sind. Erst vor kurzem wurden dort ja auch Anführer der Islamisten von anderen Islamisten ermordet.

[Schneemann]

Berichte über Kriegsverbrechen seitens der Separatisten...

Cameroon: Video Appears to Show Cameroon Separatists' Campaign of Kidnappings, Torture

Yaounde, Cameroon — Cameroon military officials say separatists have abducted and tortured several hundred civilians they accuse of violating a lockdown the fighters have imposed in the English-speaking western regions every Monday. The claim has prompted renewed condemnation of human rights abuses by separatists.

Voices of Cameroonians crying for help and begging for their lives to be spared can be heard in an audio clip from a video circulating on social media platforms, such as Facebook and WhatsApp, as armed men appear to order 17 people out of a bus. The armed men brandish AK-47 rifles and threaten to kill anyone who disobeys their orders. Among the 17 people are four women carrying babies. [...] The armed men then force all the occupants of the bus to lie down before beating them with sticks and machetes for more than 10 minutes. In the video, a man presenting himself as a fighter says his group is punishing civilians who do not respect the Monday lockdown imposed by separatists in Cameroon's English-speaking regions. [...]

Cameroon military officials say the attack was carried out by fighters on people traveling between Buea and Kumba, both commercial cities in the English-speaking South West region. Military officials say similar attacks and abductions by fighters were reported in several other English-speaking towns, including Mamfe, Ekona and Tiko.Officials also said an improvised explosive device planted by the fighters killed a taxi driver in Buea. Last week, separatists said on social media they killed four people who collaborated with government troops to kill a man known as Cross and Die, one of the fighters' self -proclaimed generals. [...] One separatist armed group, known as the Ambazonia Defence Forces, ADF, also on social media, said it carried out many attacks and abductions on hundreds of civilians in several towns for disrespecting the Monday lockdown ordered by separatists.

https://allafrica.com/stories/202111100041.html

Schneemann

[Schneemann]

Cameroon’s Forgotten Civil War Is Getting Worse

Infighting among Anglophone separatists and denial by the Cameroonian government are escalating the ongoing conflict.[...]

Weeks later, on Nov. 24, unidentified gunmen attacked a school in Ekondo Titi in the Southwest region, killing three students and a teacher. The government blamed secessionists, who in turn blamed other groups within the splintered Anglophone movement and the Cameroonian government. [...] In the aftermath of the killings, multiple factions of the divided separatist movement announced retaliatory measures, ranging from restarting a ban on all schooling, a controversial policy that they claim is to keep children safe but is seen by many on the ground to be a means of maintaining leverage and exerting control over the population, to calls to attack all members of the military. [...]

Recently, the government has taken its disproportionate and heavy-handed approach beyond its own borders, particularly into Nigeria. Nigeria hosts more than 60,000 refugees from the conflict but has also served as a source of materials including armaments and medical treatment for separatist fighters, who take advantage of the porous border between the two countries. [...]

The separatists, while insisting that they are open to dialogue, have neglected to resolve the infighting within the movement that has prevented potentially promising opportunities for mediation from taking hold. The use of IEDs and an uptick in attacks have undoubtedly impacted the Cameroonian military, leading it to take more brazen actions such as forming civilian militias.

https://foreignpolicy.com/2021/12/02/cam...ne-crisis/

Schneemann

[Schneemann]

Assassination mars Cameroon's football fiesta, exposes missed political goals

The killing this week of a prominent senator from Cameroon’s anglophone western region, while the country hosts the 2022 Africa Cup of Nations, has put a spotlight on a conflict the government has tried to paper over. While President Paul Biya hails the tournament as a symbol of unity, his government’s policies have exacerbated deadly divides. [...]

Hours later, the opposition politician’s body was found in his native Bamenda, capital of Cameroon’s war-torn Northwest Region, his chest riddled with bullets. Kemende, a lawyer and lawmaker for the Social Democratic Front (SDF) party, one of Cameroon’s main opposition parties, was an outspoken human rights defender. He was also a leading representative of the country’s marignalised anglophone minority, who constitute around 20 percent of the country’s 28 million population. [...]

Militants from a motley mix of armed groups fighting for a separate state – called “Ambazonia” – in the anglophone west have threatened to disrupt the games. Confronting a separatist insurgency in the west, a jihadist threat in the north and a pandemic across the world, the government nevertheless responded with a confident motto: “Safety will be guaranteed”. [...] The slaying of a prominent parliamentarian in the Northwest Region followed by a deadly attack in the Southwest Region has put a spotlight on a conflict the Cameroonian government has attempted to shield from the international community. [...]

Meanwhile Ambazonia militants routinely target civilians accused of “collaborating” with the government in Yaounde and have enforced a school boycott, depriving hundreds of thousands of children of their education. “It’s always the civilians, the ordinary people caught in the middle, who suffer,” said Rebecca Tinsley, a London-based activist with The Global Campaign for Peace and Justice in Cameroon. “The violence is just getting worse. In 2021, there were more than 80 IED [improvised explosive device] attacks in the anglophone region alone. Because of the violence, nearly a million children are not able to go to school and there’s very little security, making the lives of ordinary people very difficult.”

https://www.france24.com/en/africa/20220...ical-goals

Schneemann

[Schneemann]

Cameroon: Africa's Unseen Crisis

The crisis in Cameroon, the site of one of the world’s unseen wars for nearly six years, falls into that latter category. This Central African country of 26 million people has been locked in a series of conflicts, ranging from fighting between the Francophone central government and Anglophone separatists in southern Cameroon to interethnic clashes in the country’s north. Killings, kidnappings, and internal displacement of people fleeing the violence, if left unchecked, could lead to another Rwanda-type catastrophe. Over 6,000 people have been killed and nearly one million people have already been displaced by the ongoing violence in the country. [...]

Cameroon was once considered a beacon of stability in Africa. After its independence from France in 1960, Cameroon enjoyed a period of peace that allowed the country to develop critical infrastructure such as roads and railways and profitable agricultural and petroleum industries. The Francophone majority, however, dominated the central government. As a result, the Anglophone region of the country was marginalized and left out of power sharing. Tensions between the two groups intensified when Ahmadou Ahidjo, the country’s first post-independence president, resigned in 1982 and was replaced by Paul Biya, a position he has held ever since.

Differences between Francophone and Anglophone Cameroonians were further exacerbated in 2008, when the constitution was amended to abolish presidential term limits. This allowed Biya, whose Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement holds a strong majority in the National Assembly, to become president for life.

For the last several years, international experts have been concerned that Cameroon could descend into chaos. In 2016, lawyers, students, and teachers from the country’s English-speaking minority launched protests objecting to their under-representation and cultural marginalization by the central government. The state responded with a brutal crackdown. The ensuing violence has caused a massive dislocation. According to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, Cameroon security forces have engaged in a scorched earth policy of razing villages and indiscriminately torturing, maiming, and killing civilians with tactics that border on ethnic cleansing. These actions have targeted the people of Southern Cameroon, home to the country’s Christian Anglophone minority. [...]

Cameroon lies in the center of the Gulf of Guinea in Central Africa. The region accounts for 60 percent of the continent’s oil production and contains 4.5 percent of proven global oil reserves. Cameroon produces 66,000 barrels per day and is the fifth-largest oil producer in Africa (Nigeria is the largest producer of oil on the continent). Cameroon’s population is projected to rise to 50 million by 2050 and to nearly 90 million by 2099.

https://www.fpri.org/article/2022/05/cam...en-crisis/

Schneemann

[Schneemann]

Meldung von September:

Cameroon Separatists Attack Bus, Kill 6 Civilians

Bangourain, Cameroon — Military officials in Cameroon say armed separatists killed at least six people and wounded nine when they attacked a bus on a highway in the country's troubled Southwest region. The military has deployed scores of troops to track down the rebels. Locals say there has been heavy fighting between the two sides since the Tuesday attack.

These are voices of Cameroon government troops pulling people out of a bus, asking what could have prompted separatist fighters to kill innocent commuters. [...] The Cameroon military has confirmed that the video is of its troops helping victims after separatists opened fire Tuesday on a bus at Ekona, a village in Cameroon's Southwest region.

https://allafrica.com/stories/202209080029.html

Ferner (von Ende September) eine bedenkliche Meldung: Offenkunding schwappt der Konflikt, wenngleich auch auf relativ kleiner Flamme köchelnd, zunehmend nach Nigeria hinüber, in die dortige Region Biafra, die ja bekanntermaßen eine sehr blutige Geschichte hat...

Escalating conflict in Cameroon: civil war looms in the region

The conflict in Cameroon keeps escalating. Chris Anu, a long-time spokesperson for Cameroon’s self-declared Republic of Ambazonia, said that he was elected president of the separatist movement on September 10, 2022. His election comes at a time when the movement appears to be losing support among southern Cameroonians, due to allegations of infighting, corruption and human rights abuses. [...]

Anu said that the movement will take the fight to the territories of the Republic of Cameroon (French speaking part of the country). He promised to also review the movement’s much-criticised policy of closing schools. [...] The conflict keeps escalating with the death of soldiers last week in a rocket attack on their convoy in Manyemen Koupé-Manengouba, a subdivision in the Southwest region. [...]

The Nigerian separatist group the Indigenous People of Biafra, under pressure from the Nigerian military, confirmed an alliance in its waging of a sometimes violent campaign for autonomy in southeastern Nigeria. Cameroonian rebels frequently crossed into Nigeria to purchase weapons and other supplies for themselves. [...]

The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) was formed as a breakaway group of the Movement for the Actualization of Biafra with the sole purpose of completely severing ties with Nigeria through non-violent secession. These two separatist forces, leveraging on cultural and historical sentiments, as they share a common history and heritage, are banding together to present a more formidable front to national forces in West Africa.

https://lansinginstitute.org/2022/09/28/...he-region/

Schneemann

[Schneemann]

Im Oktober hatte ich dazu schon einmal eine Meldung eingestellt, und es hat den Anschein, als wie wenn dieser schwelende Konflikt erneut in das Grenzgebiet zwischen Kamerun und Nigeria übergeschwappt ist. Indessen jedoch war der jetzige Gewaltausbruch eher einem lokalen Konflikt zwischen Rinderhirten und den Separatisten geschuldet, wobei die nigerianischen Hirten auf der Suche nach Nahrung für ihre Herden die Grenze passierten und sich dann weigerten, Abgaben dafür an die Rebellen zu entrichten...

Cameroon Deploys Troops to Nigerian Border After Separatists, Herders Clash

Maroua, Cameroon — Cameroon's government deployed at least 100 troops Wednesday to Gayama, a village on the border with Nigeria, after clashes between Cameroonian separatists and Nigerian herders left at least 12 people dead. Cameroonian officials say the fighting broke out six days ago, after herders who crossed the border in search of food for their cattle refused to pay taxes the rebels demanded.

Abdoulahi Aliou, the highest-ranking government official in Menchum, the administrative unit in charge of Gayama, said the rebels killed two herders immediately upon their refusal to pay. [...] Aliou said the herders came back in huge numbers, attacked separatist camps, and killed at least four fighters. Six civilians, including the traditional ruler of Munkep village and his son, were also killed in the clashes. [...]

The U.N. says the conflict has left more than 3,500 people dead and 750,000 displaced.

https://allafrica.com/stories/202301190006.html

Und noch etwas - Zogo hatte Tage vor seiner Entführung gedroht, er werde Details zur ausufernden Korruption in der Regierung veröffentlichen. Angeblich hat er seine Beweise direkt an Präsident Biya übermittelt. Inhaltlich soll es um Korruption zwischen Medienorganisationen und dem Finanzministerium gegangen sein.

Prominent Cameroon journalist found dead after abduction

Martinez Zogo’s kidnapping is the latest in a string of attacks against journalists in the African country.

The mutilated body of a prominent Cameroonian journalist has been found near the capital, Yaoundé, five days after he was abducted by unidentified assailants. Media advocates described Martinez Zogo’s disappearance and death as a further sign of the perils of reporting in the African country.

Zogo, the director of the private radio station Amplitude FM, was kidnapped on 17 January by unknown assailants after trying to enter a police station to escape his attackers, the media watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said. [...] The incident is the latest in a string of attacks against journalists in Cameroon, which is ruled by President Paul Biya, who has a decades-long record of repressing opposition.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/j...-abduction

Schneemann

[Schneemann]

Da wir ja aktuell schon bei Afrika sind:

Cameroon Military - Mass Grave Found With Bodies of 2021 Kidnap Victims

Yaounde, Cameroon — Military officials in Cameroon say they have found a mass grave near the border with Nigeria containing the bodies of nine civilians, including five government officials, who were abducted by rebels in June 2021. Government troops were led to the mass grave by a separatist fighter who participated in the killing, but surrendered and joined a disarmament and demobilization center.

Cameroon's military says government troops exhumed the bodies from the mass grave, located about 20 kilometers from Ekondo Titi, a town in Ndian, an administrative unit on the border with Nigeria.

Lieutenant Colonel Joseph Nguele said he led several dozen Cameroon government troops to the mass grave Saturday. He said they exhumed the bodies after a reconnaissance mission to the area, which is prone to regular separatist attacks. [...] Nguele said Cameroon can now confirm the individuals as dead and no longer missing. [...] Last month, Tamaya Clinton, a 24-year-old separatist fighter who disarmed and surrendered to authorities in Cameroon's Southwest Region, said the officials were killed by separatist fighters. He promised to take government troops to the grave where the officials were buried.

https://allafrica.com/stories/202308080017.html

Schneemann