Human Rights Violations, Accountability, and the Threshold for International Investigative Mechanisms in the Conflict in Southern Cameroons
December 18, 2023
Remarks Presented at the Assembly of States Parties (ASP) Side Event: Reckoning with Double Standards: The Future of the Rome Statutes[1], December 8, 2023 United Nations
By Emma Osong, D.M*
Emma Osong
The litany of atrocity crimes and humanitarian calamity blighting Ukraine and the Middle East, calling for international justice and accountability, indeed, similarly justify the urgent call for a robust international response to the atrocity crimes ongoing in the Southern Cameroons for the past seven[2] years with intense ferocity and impunity on the watch of the international community, including the UN and the ICC.
After Rwanda, the world said, “Never Again.” Southern Cameroons feel betrayed as the carnage is ongoing without a robust international response to hold the Republic of Cameroon accountable and for an internationally mandated mechanism to examine the root causes of conflict, bring an end to impunity, and justice to victims.
War crimes and crimes against humanity have been committed in the genocidal war, yet the international community has largely failed to act, despite clear evidence of human rights abuses and a dire humanitarian crisis documented by several human rights organizations including the killing of thousands of civilian victims, over a million persons displaced, hundreds of civilians forcibly deported to neighboring countries, including Nigeria which is a state party of the Rome Statute, and hundreds of villages burnt, reports of girls and women raped with impunity, with no international response at all.[3] International aid agencies, human rights organizations, and medical providers are prevented from accessing victims in villages in need of assistance.[4]
Cameroon has militarized civilian settlements and outsourcing warfare to criminal gangs. In September 2023, in a widely circulated video, government officials announced the reactivation of vigilante committees by ex-combatants and thanked President Paul Biya for providing material support to ensure their smooth functioning.
In a rare statement, the government took responsibility for the Ngarbuh massacres on February 14, 2020, where 33 people were killed, including 13 children and a pregnant woman. The Cameroon government admitted that the crimes were the result of a joint operation between the military and its militia. The civilian and military commanders responsible were never held accountable[5].
Conflict Related Gender Based Violence
Sex and gender-based crimes are used as an instrument of war to humiliate and bring communities into total submission with the intention that they will surrender. The cases include those of the children, Sandra Ashu and Miriam Mbi Etchi, minors who are under remand in an adult state prison in Kumba, since January 2021 for alleged accessory after the fact. Rather than protect children under international conventions of children in armed conflict, they were arrested as part of a pattern of collective punishment of the civilian population during deadly clashes with the armed groups.
Young men are often targeted and subsequently arrested and deported to military detention center, tortured, without any form of due process during frequent raids of civilian settlements on the mere suspicion of being an “Amba Boy.” An estimated count of 20,000 predominantly young men from Southern Cameroons is reported to be in jail since the start of the war. (ex. the cases of Mancho Bibixy, a peaceful protester, Muslim Scholar Abdul Karim Ali, political advocate). There are reported cases of entire families arrested and jailed, with their whereabouts unknown because a member of the family is suspected of being “an Amba boy.”
Several organizations have called for an end to the violence, investigations of impunity crimes, and to hold perpetrators accountable, and even offers of international support for assessing crimes have been made[6]. All these pleas for more robust peace efforts have unfortunately fallen on deaf ears. To date, international response to the ongoing conflict has been eclipsed by the unfolding geopolitical crises in the Ukraine-Russia war and the Israel-Hamas conflict which have emboldened the government and separatists, prolonged the conflict and exacerbated the suffering of the civilian population.
It should be noted that this lack of attention to silencing guns in parts of Africa[7] is symptomatic of the skewed geopolitical considerations, strategic alliances, and the prioritization of interests over humanity. Never again remains a mere slogan!
PEACE MODELS CANNOT BE PUT IN THE ABSTRACT
UN article 33 states
The parties to any dispute, the continuance of which is likely to endanger the maintenance of international peace and security, shall, first of all, seek a solution by negotiation, enquiry, mediation, conciliation, arbitration, judicial settlement, resort to regional agencies or arrangements, or other peaceful means of their own choice.
Ahead of the December UNOCA 2019 briefing, the Cameroonian government convened what it called a grand national dialogue (GND) – activating provisions of article 62 (2) of its constitution[8] with a legislation giving “Special Status” to its Northwest and Southwest regions, an amorphous designation essentially downgrading and turning Southern Cameroons into a Republic of Cameroon Bantustans. It was an action that relegated Southern Cameroonians to an even more restrictive administrative and military governance structures answerable only to Yaoundé with no power or autonomy to solve its own problems or manage its own affairs. The so called “Special Status” was never intended to devolve powers. Rather, in a country ruled largely by presidential decree , a danger lurked that could further break up the Southern Cameroons into appendages of the Republic of Cameroon in the 1996 constitution, Section 61 (1) which states: The following provinces shall become Regions: Adamaoua; Centre; East; Far North; Littoral; North; North-West; West; South; South-West, and (2) The President of the Republic may, as and when necessary: (a) change the names and modify the geographical boundaries of the Regions listed in paragraph (1) above; (b) create other Regions. In this case, he shall give them names and fix their geographical boundaries.
The GND did not seek to maintain the international peace and security of the region as it was neither a negotiation, mediation nor settlement aimed at resolving the conflict. It was a diversional tactic intended to diffuse growing pressure, deceive the international community that there was no need for an internationally mandated mediation to address the root causes of the conflict.
In September 2022 and January 2023, respectively, the Cameroonian government opted out of international mediation led by the Switzerland[9] and pre-talks held by the Canadian government[10] to address the root causes of the conflict without facing consequences. The government rather chose to intensify war efforts, exacerbated the crisis with additional military deployments to the crisis-torn regions.
By endorsing both the 2019 Swiss-led peace process and the 2022 Canada pre-talks, the global community tacitly admitted to the international character of the conflict, and to a proposed internationally backed mediation that would have addressed the root causes as a pathway out of the conflict.[11]
It further acknowledged the conflicts not as merely internal matters of minority grievances, cultural anxieties, or linguistic differences, but rather as rooted in the failed integration of the territory of Southern Cameroons into a highly centralized French-dominated unitary state of the Republic of Cameroon, a fact already admitted and disclosed by President Biya during the 2019 Paris Peace Conference.[12]
Biya has rebuffed calls for dialogue with no substantive consequences. Only limited sanctions have been implemented.[13] The lack of substantive pressure continues to embolden both the Biya regime and the armed groups to believe in the possibility of an all-out military victory.
This year marked the 41st anniversary of the Biya regime marked by a seven-year humanitarian crisis. The regime cannot be counted on to improve the deteriorating human rights situation, ensure justice and accountability, or put an end to the war. The Republic of Cameroon lacks the necessary legislative framework to investigate allegations of war crimes and genocide and lacks it has demonstrated it the political will to address the root causes of the war.
More, there is no separation of powers between the judiciary, legislative, and executive branches of the government as the country is governed through a series of decrees without debate or enactment by its legislative arm with highly politicized judiciary.[14]
The Need for International Action
After seven years, neither the government of the Republic of Cameroon nor the armed groups can claim all-out victory, and the risk of a serious escalation of hostilities with each passing day grows. Concrete action or a robust intervention is needed beyond mere rhetoric, templated statements calling for peace, and offerings of thoughts and prayers when human lives are lost.
The international community has admitted there is a problem, and that there must be accountability and justice for victims in the ongoing war in Southern Cameroons as has been achieved in other crises around the world. Still, it has failed to mount sufficient pressure on the Biya regime and armed groups to end the violence and engage in good-faith talks.
The question is: will the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), with a mandate to uphold international peace and security under the United Nations Charter, (1945), facilitate a robust peace process? And will the International Criminal Court (ICC), play a pivotal role in ensuring accountability for war crimes in the conflict in Southern Cameroons? ICC's jurisdiction empowers it to prosecute individuals for the international crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes as defined by the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, (1998).
The civilized world must act. The crimes in Southern Cameroons meet the threshold of the ICC jurisdiction because many of these crimes have been committed on the territory of Nigeria, which is a state party to the Rome Statute.
The crisis in Southern Cameroons is a stark reminder of the devastating consequences of the international community's failure to act decisively. There are clear pathways to peace:
Hold both the Cameroonian government and separatist groups accountable for their human rights violations and ensure that justice is served for the victims.
Hold Cameroon Responsible for the ongoing atrocity crimes within the mandate of the ICC and the Geneva Convention
Implement international-backed mediation efforts aimed at addressing the root causes of the conflict, involving regional actors with consequences for lack of good faith engagement.
Support for a referendum and uphold the rights to external self-determination for the Peoples of the Southern Cameroons.
[1] Side event can be found on the Coalition of the International Criminal Court at https://www.coalitionfortheicc.org/asp22-side-events
[2] Reports of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide have been widely reported since the start of the war by human rights organizations. See https://www.globalr2p.org/countries/cameroon/
[7] Un report notes that the AU aspiration goal of silencing the guns in Africa by 2020 by creating conditions favorable for the growth, development and integration were not met citing worsening security conditions including spread of terrorism and violent extremism, resource-linked and inter-communal conflict, a resurgence of unconstitutional changes of government, and intra-state conflicts such as in Cameroon, Ethiopia, and South Suda. The new date has now been moved to 2030, https://www.securitycouncilreport.org/monthly-forecast/2023-03/silencing-the-guns-in-africa.php
[8] Constitution of Cameroon, Law No. 96-6 of 18 January 1996 to amend the Constitution of 2 June, 1972. Section 62 (1): The aforementioned rules and regulations shall apply to all Regions. (2) Without prejudice to the provisions of this Part, the law may take into consideration the specificities of certain Regions with regard to their organization and functioning. Special status was already in the amended constitution of 18 January 1996 and it did not require a conference to activate it. Cameroon purported to activate the provision of article 62 (2) of its constitution after the grand national dialogue through legislation relegated Ambazonia to highly regimented apartheid superintendence with administrative and military governing structures charged with the mission of enforcing the cultural genocide, economic exploitation and eviscerating its distinctive identity. The immediate outcome is the ongoing weaponization of civilian settlements and the intensification of genocide and atrocity crimes.
[11] United Nations. 2019. Secretary General Welcomes Swiss Government’s Commitment to Facilitate Resolution of Crisis in Cameroon Through Dialogue. Retrieved from https://press.un.org/en/2019/sgsm19648.doc.htm
[12] In this video, President Biya explains his failed attempts at integrating the Anglophone regions into a hyper centralized French-dominated government resulting in a conflict, https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=528523474635095
[14] Tardzenyuy, D.C. (2019). A Critical Analysis of the Separation of Power in Cameroon: Separation of Power in Cameroon. LAP Lambert Academic Publishing
* The presentation was done by Dr Emma Osong at the just ended Assembly of State Parties of the ICC in the United Nations in New York.
