Foreign
UNHRC Commissoner Regrets For Not Investigating War Crimes In Ambazonia, Blames La Republique
Published
6 years agoon
By
Neba Benson
The UN Human Rights Commission in a brief statement released to the Human Rights Council acknowledges what it called the ”long-standing” structural discrimination by the colonial government of La Republique in the many years Yaounde has entrenched its tentacles all over the Southern Cameroons.
Continuous clashes over the last months between LRC’s security forces and pro-independence fighters have seen a cycle of violence. The rights commission also mentioned in the statement how the arrest of the 47 members of the Interim government in Nigeria two months ago and their subsequent extradition to La Republique has emboldened pro-independence fighters in the Northern and Southern zones of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia.
The statement also pinpoint allegations of what it called ”summary executions” of civilians as reports of La Republique security forces carrying out extrajudicial killings has picked steam. Such barbaric acts and atrocious deeds of elite soldiers which it notes for ”generating widespread resentment” in local communities.
While the UN Human Rights Commission condemned the heavy-handedness of the regime’s clampdown, the High Commission took some blame for not being able to secure access in order to verify these allegations. The High Commissioner in a statement wrote “ I regret that my office has not been given access to verify these allegations” . Among some of the reasons given for the delay were the complex bureaucratic challenges faced by UN authorities, their commitment in the newly displaced people from the Central African Republic and Boko Haram attacks in recent weeks.
The High Commissioner urged the government of La Republique to take strides in order to ”de-escalate the conflict” and requested what it called ”unimpeded access” for monitors from the Human Rights Council on a fact-finding mission so that accurate information on the ground situation, so as to ascertain the way forward for constructive engagement on the issue.
Neba Benson,
BaretaNews Foreign Correspondent/Analyst
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