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At Least Eight Killed in English-Speaking Cameroon Protests

October 02, 2017

By Divine Ntaryike Jr*

Protesters in Anglophone regions demand independence
  • Security forces maintain heavy presence near state buildings
[caption id="attachment_40813" align="alignleft" width="360"]Cameroon police officials with riot equipment patrol along a street in the administrative quarter of Buea some 60kms west of Douala on October 1, 2017. A young man from Cameroon's English-speaking region was shot dead by security forces in the city of Kumba on the eve of an expected symbolic declaration of independence by anglophone separatists, medical and security forces told AFP. / AFP PHOTO / STRINGER (Photo credit should read STRINGER/AFP/Getty Images) Cameroon police officials with riot equipment patrol along a street in the administrative quarter of Buea some 60kms west of Douala on October 1, 2017. A young man from Cameroon's English-speaking region was shot dead by security forces in the city of Kumba on the eve of an expected symbolic declaration of independence by anglophone separatists, medical and security forces told AFP. / AFP PHOTO / STRINGER (Photo credit should read STRINGER/AFP/Getty Images)
Source: AFP via Getty Images[/caption] At least eight people were killed during protests in towns across western Cameroon on Sunday as residents of the mainly English-speaking regions defied a ban on public gatherings and demanded independence from the rest of the largely Francophone nation. The protests in the Southwest and Northwest regions have been called by a group known as Southern Cameroon/Ambazonia Governing Council. Four demonstrators were shot dead in the northwestern town of Kumbo as they marched to government buildings to hoist the blue and white Ambazonia flag, Mayor Donatus Njong Fonyuy said by phone. Another three bodies were taken to the mortuary in southwestern Buea, while a person with gunshot wounds was declared dead at the Kumba Presbyterian Clinic in the same region, Mercy Ndum, a nurse at the facility, said by phone.
 Activists hoisted the Ambazonia flag in Bamenda in the northwest, Emile Gousmou, the territory’s head of police, said by phone. Protesters in Buea were heading toward government offices in the afternoon as crowds of mainly young people waved green branches and chanted an independence anthem.
Earlier on Sunday, helicopters were flying at low range in Buea, with a large number of troops posted around government offices, schools and churches. The government also curtailed internet services. President Paul Biya, 84, ordered a wave of arrests earlier this year after lawyers and teachers in English-speaking areas protested the dominance of the French language in courts and schools throughout the Northwest and Southwest regions, which border Nigeria. “Nothing great can be achieved using verbal excesses, street violence, and defying authority,” Biya said on his Facebook account on Sunday. “Lasting solutions to problems can be found only through peaceful dialogue.”

Authorities were ready to crack down on protesters who ignored a directive which banned meetings of more than four people and prohibited inter-city travel during the weekend, government spokesman Issa Tchiroma Bakary said on Saturday.

Cameroon, originally colonized by Germany, was split after World War One into a bigger French-run zone and smaller British-controlled area. They were unified in 1961. The country is a key transit hub for landlocked neighbors Central African Republic and Chad, and exports crude oil, timber, cocoa and palm oil. *Source Bloomberg

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