After forces conducted attacks on rebel strongholds in Cameroon‘s western provinces, locals buried scores of separatists militants in mass graves, according to the military. A separatist spokesman claimed that Cameroon’s military was executing its seized militants, a claim that the military disputes.
Civilians buried rebel combatants slain by government troops in Guzang, according to Cameroon’s military. Separatists were allegedly targeting and harassing citizens in North-Western cities and villages such as Guzang, Batibo, Wum, Ndu, Kumbo, and Bafut, according to the military.
Cameroonian officials blamed anglophone separatists for kidnappings for ransom, traffic disruptions, and attacks on government-controlled public facilities in Yaounde.
More than 40 fighters were slain in the raids, according to the military, including three self-proclaimed separatist generals.
Capo Daniel is the deputy defense chief of the Ambazonia Defense Forces, one of the English-speaking North-West and South-West areas of Cameroon’s separatist factions. He admitted that warriors had been slain, but he did not specify how many. According to Daniel, Cameroonian government troops violated fighters’ human rights, including the troops slain at Guzang.
Dianel said; “Six of those fighters in Guzang, including one civilian, were all captured alive, their hands were all tied behind their backs before they were executed.
“In a second location, still in Guzang, four soldiers [fighters] were captured, their hands tied behind their backs, two of them later died of bullet wounds, another one was executed in the Guzang market square. The Cameroon military attack against our freedom fighters in Guzang is a war crime and is a crime against humanity.”
Several government forces, according to Daniel, were killed by fighters. Separatists, he stressed, will not give up their fight for what he calls the freedom of the English-speaking minority in Cameroon from the French-speaking majority.
Cameroon’s military denied killing its troops and committing crimes against fighters. According to the military, troops were dispatched to safeguard civilians after fighters opened fire on residents indiscriminately in the air.
Deben Tchoffo, governor of Cameroon’s English-speaking North-West region, where government soldiers battled separatists this week, said the government will pardon combatants who lay down their weapons and leave the woods, where separatists hide to commit atrocities against civilians, according to him.
Tchoffo said; “There is no need for somebody to go to the bush to express himself politically, socially.
“From the instructions given to us we are going at the grassroots levels to reinforce he fight against the circulation of ammunition [war weapons] in the region and make sure all those that are still keeping them [weapons] are brought to book and prosecuted.”
Separatists in English-speaking western Cameroon began their insurrection in 2017 after years of persecution by the country’s French-speaking majority, according to the separatists.
According to the United Nations, the fighting has killed over 3,300 people and displaced more than 500,000 people.
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