Cameroon’s military has admitted that three members of its airborne battalion had earlier this week attacked civilians and killed two mothers in Nylbat, an English-speaking village in Andeck district.
According to military statements, troops were sent to fight separatists within the troubled northwestern region. They broke orders from the military hierarchy and started shooting randomly at civilians, killing two innocent mothers. According to the government, relatives of the victims’ mothers ran to the scene and took the bodies from the government troops. Speaking via the messaging app WhatsApp from Andeck, a relative of one victim said civilians sealed their businesses and refused to go to their farms for three days as a sign of protest against Monday’s killings.
The government said that it had arrested the three soldiers who opened fire on civilians unarmed. Eyong Tarh is an official with the Center for Human Rights and Democracy in Africa. He says that until the military punishes all those who have committed atrocities, rights groups in Cameroon would continue to exert pressure. “I have a worry whether the culprits will be brought to book, because similar cases have taken place but we don’t know what has happened to the perpetrators,” Tara said. Rights groups have repeatedly accused both Cameroon’s military and anglophone separatists of killing civilians and torching their homes during their five years of fighting. Both sides reject the accusations as a slander of their image.
Source: north africa post
