By Eric Tataw – Tuesday July 30, 2019.
At least eight (8) Nigerians have been brutally murdered by a contingent of the Cameroon military in Nkogho, a village in Eyumojock, a Sub-Division in Manyu Division in Cameroon’s restive South West Region that shares boundaries with Nigeria’s Cross River State, National Telegraph has confirmed.
Reports say the Nigerians were labourers working in Cocoa farms in the area on partnership with owners in what is fondly known as two-party.
The military stormed Nkogho village in their numbers early Sunday July 28, 2019, in a bid to attack and destroy a purported separatist camp, a source said, adding that the military was frustrated when they couldn’t find any of the restoration forces nor their camp in the area.
While in Nkogho, the military started arresting Nigerian labourers and accused them of providing the Ambazonia fighters with charms, popularly known as “Odeshi”. All 8 Nigerian labourers arrested were later late Monday July 29, 2019, executed.
Pundits hold that this constitutes a serious diplomatic issue especially as family members and friends of these victims plan on opening files on the matter. Reports say the military identified them as Nigerians before killing them. This isn’t the first time elements of the Cameroon military are killing foreigners; An American, Ghanaian, Kenyan, Nigerian have been killed before.
Some Christians of the Presbyterian and Full Gospel churches in same Nkogho village were also taken hostage and quizzed on possible locations of Ambazonia fighters, a source confirmed to National Telegraph.
Meanwhile, on their way back to Mamfe, capital of Manyu were the main military camp is located in the precinct, soldiers stopped at Bessem, a quarter in Ajayujndip still in Eyumojock and burnt down a building belonging to a local identified as Ayuk Obang, which according to the military is used by Restoration forces as a hideout.
The population of the entire quarter of Bessem quarters fled into the bushes, a source said and furthered that a dog owned by a certain Asoqua alias “Asuks” was equally shot by the Cameroon military.
Unrest in Cameroon’s two English-speaking regions began in October 2016 as a disagreement in language but government mismanaged it, turning it into an armed conflict with a demand by majority of Anglophones in the North West and South West for a separate state called Ambazonia as it was in 1961. Many are now asking the International Community to look at the root cause of the conflict from 1961.
According to credible reports from the US Ambassador to Cameroon, Peter Henry Barlerin, reputable Human Rights Lawyer Agbor Balla and Bishops of Mamfe and Kumbo, the Cameroon military has been wrapped in several war crimes.
The Cameroon government has blocked Humanitarian organisations from having access to the war-torn areas while others have been denied entry into the country like a recent case of a Human Rights Watch staff.
Armed separatists have also been accused of torture and human rights abuses according to a recent Human Rights Watch report but they’ve denied any wrongdoing, saying that government soldiers now dress like Ambazonia fighters, commit crimes and blame it on separatist.
