65 Organizations Petition AU On Human Rights Abuses In Ambazonia
By Mbah Godlove
Some 65 None Governmental Organizations (NGOs) in Africa and beyond, have called on the African
Union to investigate and punish the culprits of Human rights abuses in Ambazonia.
In a strongly-worded four-page epistolary piece endorsed by all 65 organizations recently, the leadership of the African Union was entreated to handle the case of Ambazonia as a matter of urgency.
Assessing the human right situation in the war-ravaged territory, the NGOs revealed that bad faith from the colonial regime of French Cameroun toward lawyers’, teachers’ and students’ peaceful manifestations across Ambazonia in late 2016, laid the foundation of the current stalemate.
The crisis developed into an armed conflict in 2017 when dictator Biya of LRC declared war on Southern Cameroons.
The war, according to the 65 organizations, has left Ambazonians in agony, with both colonial forces and restorationist fighters blamed for the worsening human rights situation.
“Government forces and ‘separatists’ have both been responsible for serious human rights abuses.
“Security forces have killed civilians, burned dozens of villages, arbitrarily arrested and tortured hundreds of alleged ‘armed separatists’.
”’Armed separatists’ have also targeted civilians, kidnapped hundreds of people, tortured and killed perceived opponents, while using intimidation and violence to keep children and their teachers out of school,” the letter stated.
The authors of the document regretted that the ongoing stalemate has “claimed 3000 lives, forced half a million people to flee their homes and leftover 700,000 children out of school,” they revealed.
The members of the the different civil societies presented to the AU amongst other resolutions, the creation of a special envoy in Cameroun that will report directly to the African Union Peace and Security Commission, and that, the agenda of the Union’s 62nd convention slated for January 2020 should dwell on the human rights abuses in Ambazonia.
