On 1 June 2022, Cameroonian soldiers of the 53rd Motorized Infantry Battalion killed nine civilians in the village of ,
Northwest Region during the
Anglophone Crisis
The Anglophone Crisis (), also known as the Ambazonia War or the Cameroonian Civil War, is an ongoing civil war in the Northwest and Southwest regions of Cameroon, part of the long-standing Anglophone problem. Following the suppression of the 2 ...
.
A
Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch (HRW) is an international non-governmental organization, headquartered in New York City, that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. The group pressures governments, policy makers, companies, and individual human r ...
report after the killings found that nine civilians in Missong (a settlement in
Zhoa
Zhoa is a town and commune in Cameroon
Cameroon (; french: Cameroun, ff, Kamerun), officially the Republic of Cameroon (french: République du Cameroun, links=no), is a country in west-central Africa. It is bordered by Nigeria to the west ...
, ) had been killed by the military, relying on testimony from five eyewitnesses and a village elder, describing it as "a reprisal operation against a community suspected of harboring separatist fighters."
A few days after the HRW report was published, military spokesman Cyrille Serge Atonfack Guemo published a federal enquiry into the action.
The statement found that the soldiers were conducting a search for a missing soldier when they were confronted by a group of angry residents. According to a government enquiry the soldiers responded in a "inappropriate" and "manifestly disproportionate" manner by murdering four men, four women and an 18-month-old girl. A one-year-old child was lightly wounded and transferred to the hospital.
The federal enquiry and admission by the army was among the first of its kind by the army during the
Anglophone Crisis
The Anglophone Crisis (), also known as the Ambazonia War or the Cameroonian Civil War, is an ongoing civil war in the Northwest and Southwest regions of Cameroon, part of the long-standing Anglophone problem. Following the suppression of the 2 ...
,
and welcomed as "a positive step" by Human Rights Watch.
See also
*
Ngarbuh massacre
The Ngarbuh massacre took place in northwestern Cameroon on 14 February 2020 during the Anglophone Crisis, and resulted in the murder of 21 civilians, including 13 children, by Cameroonian soldiers and armed Fulani militia.
Massacre
On 14 Fe ...
References
June 2022 crimes in Africa
Massacres in Cameroon
Mass murder in 2022
2022 murders in Cameroon
Anglophone Crisis
Northwest Region (Cameroon)
Cameroonian war crimes
Massacres in 2022
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