The kidnapping took place in the village of Kedjom Keku in the north-west region.
About 30 women were abducted by separatist rebels in western Cameroon nearly four days ago, according to authorities, after more than six years of bloody conflict between English-speaking minority separatists and forces of the order.
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They were “severely tortured and kidnapped by armed terrorists” in the village of Kedjom Keku in the north-west region, where armed separatist groups often kidnap civilians, mainly for ransom, the country’s prefecture said in a press release on Tuesday, May 23 Department of Mezam. The authorities still refer to armed rebels who are demanding independence in the north-west and south-west regions they call “Ambazonia”, populated mostly by that country’s English-speaking minority with the word “terrorists”. Predominantly speak French Central Africa.
“About thirty women were kidnapped by separatists on Saturday morning,” “we haven’t found them yet,” an army colonel told AFP Tuesday night, asking not to be identified. The communications service of the Ministry of Territorial Administration confirmed to AFP that the authorities had “no news about the hostages” as of Tuesday evening. The day before they were kidnapped, these “elderly” women organized a “peaceful protest march”. […] against the extortion and criminal activities of terrorists,” assures Mezam Prefecture.
A video on social networks
The two English-speaking regions have been the scene of a deadly conflict between the separatist rebels, who call themselves “Amba Boys” or “Amba Fighters”, on the one hand, and the army and police on the other, since late 2016. Both sides are regularly attacked by international NGOs and the UN accused of crimes against civilians. According to the International Crisis Group (ICG) think tank, the conflict has claimed more than 6,000 lives and forced over a million people to relocate.
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The day before their kidnapping, the women had demonstrated “publicly against the exploitative activities of the Amba fighters” and in particular against the obligation imposed by them on civilians to pay them “a monthly tax of CFA francs 10,000”. [15 euros] for men and 5,000 for women,” said the Center for Human Rights and Democracy in Africa (CHRDA), a Yaoundé-based NGO that documents human rights abuses in Africa, in a statement. The rebels assure them that they collect these “taxes” to fund their “war effort for independence.”
A video has been circulating on social media purporting to show these women sitting on the floor and obviously frightened, which AFP has been unable to authenticate, but which CHRDA quotes and describes in its press release, ensuring it was posted by the “Amba Boys”. . . Gunmen there insult and threaten them, assuring them that they will kill these women whom they accuse of “complicity with the soldiers,” according to CHRDA, which denounced a “barbaric act” by their kidnappers.
fraud and torture
Some armed rebel groups regularly kidnap civilians for ransom, sometimes in large groups, as in the kidnapping of some 30 women, particularly from schools they accuse of teaching French. They also regularly carry out targeted assassinations against officials, but also against civilians whom they accuse of “collaborating with the army”.
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Its abuses are regularly denounced by international NGOs and the United Nations, which also regularly accuse the army of deadly mistakes against civilians, mass executions, torture and even raids and murders in villages.
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The conflict erupted in late 2016 after the violent repression of peaceful demonstrations by members of English-speaking civil society, some of whom feel ostracized by the French-speaking majority of this country, which has been ruled with an iron fist by the president for more than forty years. Paul Biya, 90 years old. The latter is unsolvable even for the moderates who are calling for a federalist solution to this conflict, and his regime has for more than six years massively deployed the elite army and police to put down the uprising.