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Cameroon Anglophone Villagers Attack Separatist Camps Over Abuse

Moki Edwin Kindzeka

   BABUNGO, CAMEROON - Several communities in Cameroon's English-speaking
   regions have within a week attacked at least five camps belonging to
   separatist fighters, whom they accuse of destroying civilian homes,
   looting and killing innocent people. The angry civilians say they do
   not know who to trust, as they say the military commits similar crimes
   against them.

   A group of 150 women and children in the northwestern village of
   Babungo sing a song against anglophone rebels.
   They sing that they will together fight the separatists, who they say
   have been abusing villagers.
   The leader of the group, 55-year-old farmer Mary Najela, says rebels in
   December accused her husband of helping Cameroon's military and then
   killed him.
   Najela says they are saying no to separatists' plans to either
   eliminate all of them or see them suffer. She says all of them,
   including women and children, must work together to protect each other
   and their property.
   The women and children on Tuesday sang and marched to the house of
   their local, traditional ruler, Ndofua Zofia.
   Villagers saved him from being abducted on Monday night by seven rebel
   fighters, who they managed to chase off.
   Zofia says he is grateful to his people and angry with the rebels, who
   say they are fighting for the rights of English-speaking Cameroonians.
   "Why should my people and I be tortured like this?" he asks. "The
   rebels have abducted candidates for the local council and parliamentary
   elections, looted, collected ransoms, and killed civilians. Enough is
   enough."
   Babungo is not the only anglophone village in Cameroon with growing
   anti-separatist feelings over rebel abuses. Authorities, local media
   reports, and a rebel spokesman confirmed villagers have been attacking
   separatist camps.
   Last week, people from the English-speaking village of Balikumbat
   stormed rebel camps and seized their guns, along with items stolen from
   them, including goats and cows.
   The villagers say the retaliation was sparked after rebels stole a taxi
   driver's motorcycle because he refused to give them $10 in support.
   Cameroon's rebels have confirmed their fighters committed abuses.
   On Sunday, separatist fighters in the southwestern town of Kumba killed
   their commander, say local media reports, because he ordered them to
   torture civilians.
   Tapang Ivo Tanku is a U.S.-based spokesman for one rebel group-- the
   Anglophone Defense Forces. Speaking via WhatsApp, he says they have
   ordered their fighters, who he calls soldiers, to arrest anyone who
   abuses villagers, including fellow rebels.
   "We are strongly condemning all of these soldiers [fighters] who are
   turning their weapons against civilians or who are stealing civilians'
   properties and not protecting civilians. This is adversely affecting
   the revolution [struggle for independence]," he said.
   But Tanku also accused the government of often framing rebels to
   tarnish the image of those fighting for the independence of
   English-speaking regions from French-majority Cameroon.

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