Cameroon: Cameroon Says Separatists Relaunch Assaults, IED Use After Dying of Self Proclaimed Basic

Yaoundé, Cameroon — Cameroon says separatists have killed and kidnapped villagers within the troubled South-West area in retaliation after the army this week killed a insurgent chief and three of his males. The army blamed the self-declared common, nicknamed Transporter, for a number of atrocities, which the rebels deny.

Movies of improvised bombs exploding was shared on social media platforms, together with Fb and WhatsApp, by Cameroon separatist teams.

The separatists have been preventing since 2017 to carve out an English-speaking state from majority French-speaking Cameroon.

In a single video, a person identifies himself as Sagon Jaguar, chief of the separatist group known as the Ambazonia Restoration Forces, in Bamessing village in Cameroon’s English-speaking North-West area. He says the bombs fighters planted destroyed 5 army jeeps belonging to Cameroon authorities troops.

The army confirmed that fighters resumed using such bombs in a number of English-speaking cities and villages, together with Bamessing, Oku, Kumbo, Nkambe and Kom this week, and says a number of civilians have been killed or kidnapped with their property torched. Officers added that army autos had been destroyed and a few troops had been wounded however gave no particulars.

Cameroon mentioned fighters resumed assaults after authorities troops on Tuesday killed Ayuk Ndifon Defcam, a self-proclaimed insurgent chief often called “Basic Transporter.” Authorities troops mentioned he was neutralized alongside his assistant and two collaborators in Wame, a village in Meme, an English-speaking administrative unit in Cameroon’s South-West area.

Chamberlin Ntou’ ou Ndong, the highest-ranking authorities official in Meme visited Kumba on Friday to encourage civilians to denounce suspected fighters hiding in cities and villages. He mentioned fighters who’re avenging the killing of Transporter can be killed by the army if they don’t lay down their weapons and give up.

Ndong informed VOA the infamous self-proclaimed common Transporter dedicated many crimes towards civilians, together with abductions, rape, and the bloodbath of seven college kids within the English-speaking southwestern city of Kumba on October 24, 2020. He mentioned Transporter, who escaped and was hiding within the creeks across the Gulf of Guinea, returned to Konye village close to Kumba and was planning assaults on public edifices and army installations when authorities troops stunned him and three of his fighters.

Ndong mentioned the army seized weapons from the rebels and freed a number of individuals who had been held hostage by the fighters. The army mentioned Transporter was the chief of a number of hundred fighters hiding within the bush.

Capo Daniel, a spokesperson and deputy protection chief of the separatist group Ambazonia Protection Forces, mentioned fighters resumed full-scale assaults to avenge Transporter’s killing.

“We now have elevated the variety of assaults and doubled our use of IED assaults towards Cameroon army convoys. Basic Transporter represents the youths of Ambazonia who’ve stood up for his or her rights of self-determination. He has paid the final word worth for what he believed in,” Daniel mentioned. “We now have changed him and the allegations made by the state of Cameroon that Basic Transporter was concerned within the killing of scholars in a faculty in Kumba is baseless.”

Separatists declare Cameroon’s army was behind the Kumba college assault. Daniel mentioned the army blames fighters as a result of the federal government needs to offer fighters a foul identify.

Daniel additionally mentioned the assaults are additionally supposed to cease the March 12 senatorial elections organized by Cameroon’s central authorities in Yaoundé from going down within the English-speaking areas. He mentioned anybody who defies the election ban can be handled however didn’t say how.

In December, Cameroon’s army mentioned no main separatist assault had been reported inside six weeks, a sign that peace is returning to the areas the place 3,500 folks have been killed in 5 years.

The United Nations says 750,000 have been displaced by the preventing.