About 30 women were abducted, according to authorities, by separatist rebels nearly four days ago in western Cameroon, bloodied for more than six years by a conflict between separatists from the English-speaking minority and forces of the order.
They were "severely tortured and abducted by armed terrorists" in the village of Kedjom Keku, in the North West region, where armed separatist groups frequently kidnap civilians, mainly for ransom, said Tuesday, May 23, in a press release, the prefecture of the department of Mezam. Authorities still refer to armed rebels as "terrorists" who are calling for the independence of the North West and South West regions, which they call "Ambazonia", populated mainly by the country's English-speaking minority. predominantly French-speaking Central Africa.
"About 30 women were kidnapped by separatists" on Saturday morning, "we haven't found them yet," an army colonel told AFP on Tuesday evening, who requested anonymity. The communication service of the ministry of territorial administration confirmed to AFP that the authorities had "no news of the hostages" on Tuesday evening. The day before their abduction, these "elderly" women were organizing a "peaceful march to protest [...] against the exactions and criminal activities of terrorists", assures the prefecture of Mezam.
A video on social networks
The two English-speaking regions have been the scene since late 2016 of a deadly conflict between separatist rebels on one side, who call themselves the "Amba Boys" or "Amba Fighters", and the army and the police on the other, both sides being regularly accused by international NGOs and the UN of crimes against civilians. The conflict has claimed more than 6,000 lives and forced more than a million people to move, according to the International Crisis Group (ICG) think tank.
The women had "publicly demonstrated" the day before their abduction against "the exploitative activities of the Amba Fighters" and in particular the obligation imposed on civilians by the latter to pay them "monthly taxes of 10,000 CFA francs [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 violations in Africa, in a statement. The rebels claim that they collect these "taxes" to finance their "war effort for independence".
A video is circulating on social networks, claiming to show these women, seated on the ground and obviously frightened, whom AFP could not authenticate but whom the CHRDA quotes and describes in its press release, ensuring that it was posted by the "Amba Boys". Armed men there utter insults and threats against them, assuring that they will kill these women, whom they accuse of "complicity with the soldiers", according to the CHRDA, which denounces a "barbaric act" of their captors.
Frauds and acts of torture
Some armed rebel groups regularly carry out kidnappings for ransom of civilians, sometimes in large groups, such as the abduction of some 30 women, particularly in schools they accuse of teaching French. They also regularly commit targeted assassinations against representatives of the authorities, but also against civilians whom they accuse of "collaborating with the army".
Their abuses are regularly denounced by international NGOs and the UN, which just as regularly accuse the army of committing fatal blunders against civilians, summary executions, acts of torture and even raids and killings in villages.
The conflict erupted at the end of 2016 after the violent repression of peaceful demonstrations by members of English-speaking civil society, some of whom consider themselves ostracized by the French-speaking majority of this country ruled with an iron fist for more than forty years by the president. Paul Biya, 90 years old. The latter is intractable, even with regard to the most moderate, who demand a federalist solution to this conflict, and his regime has for more than six years massively deployed the elite of the army and the police to suppress the rebellion.
