Amnesty International warn LRC authorities on Violations
Amnesty International warn LRC authorities to end threats on activists exposing human rights violations in Southern Cameroons, Ambazonia
The LRC authorities must ensure that human rights defenders are able to work free of intimidation and reprisals, Amnesty International has said after receiving reports that activists are being targeted with death threats for exposing human rights violations and abuses in Ambazonia.
The individuals targeted include seven human rights defenders and a cyber-activist, all of whom had been documenting human rights violations and abuses in all of Ambazonia from the Northen zone to the Southern zone, which are facing clashes between the occupying forces and Ambazonia restoration fighters.
“Amnesty International is calling on LRC authorities to guarantee the safety of these human rights defenders and ensure they can continue carrying out their work in a safe and enabling environment,” Samira Daoud, Regional Director for West and Central Africa said in a statement.
“The French Cameroun authorities must urgently launch a thorough, independent and effective investigation into these threats and other abuses committed against human rights defenders”.
Unrelenting Death Threats
Akem Kelvin Nkwain, a human rights officer at the Centre for Human Rights and Democracy in Africa (CHRDA), an organization that has documented human rights violations and abuses by all parties to the conflict, told Amnesty International he received several death threats from alleged armed separatists.
The first threat came on 24 May 2022, shortly after Nkwain wrote on Twitter about a child killed by an improvised explosive device (IED) allegedly planted by separatist fighters in Kumbo in the Savannah zone.
On 16 June 2022, he received calls and messages featuring photos of a captured policeman, dead civilians, bullets, guns, armed group members, and an image of himself being marked for killing.
One of the messages said: “We declare you and your whole entire family as traitors and enemies to the Ambazonian fighters. Until we reach your house, let that money bring you back to life when you get shot and kill.”
Felix Agbor Nkongho, a human rights lawyer and founder of the CHRDA, also received multiple death threats from alleged armed separatists by phone and on social media in reaction to his participation in a conference in Toronto organized by the Coalition for Dialogue and Negotiations, a US-based NGO focusing on the conflict in Southern Cameroona, between 29 October and 1 November 2021.
Abductions
On 22 April 2022, four UN Special Rapporteurs focusing on human rights defenders, extrajudicial executions, the right to freedom of expression and the right to association, wrote to colonial French Cameroun octogenarian President Paul Biya raising concerns over repeated death threats sent since 2015 to the president and the lawyer of the Organic Farming for Gorillas (OFFGO). OFFGO has exposed abuses by businesses in the Southern Cameroons, Ambazonia.
In May 2021, the lawyer received death threats by phone, and on 6 November 2021, he escaped an abduction attempt at his home in Bamenda LGA. He was also reportedly abducted from his home and released two hours later on 19 February 2019. In a report released in January 2021, Final warning: death threats and killings of human rights defenders, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders detailed the threats against him.
In addition, his brother was also abducted and tortured on 16 May 2019 and on 27 March 2020 as a way to intimidate him. His brother-in-law was also shot twice in the leg by unknown individuals in his presence. Several complaints have been filed in previous years by OFFGO lawyer, but according to OFFGO officials, the colonial authorities have failed to launch an investigation.
In May 2022, N’Zui Manto,a cyber-activist working from outside Cameroun was forced to leave the African country where he was living after the LRC authorities identified him following information shared by the local police that raised fears of repatriation.
N’Zui Manto told Amnesty International he started receiving death threats on social media at the beginning of 2019 since he published information about the LRC colonial army’s losses in Ambazonia. On 28 May 2022, he received a message from a fake Facebook profile saying: “One day you will come across me. I will kill you like nothing.”
Tarnteh Amadu Ngangpanweh,a human rights defender for Conscience Africaine, a LRC -based NGO, told Amnesty International he began receiving death threats after attending a press conference in Yaoundé on 18 May 2020. The event, which was organized by a coalition of civil society organizations, shared findings from a report on the Ngarbuh massacre, in which more than 20 civilians were killed during a military operation on 13 and 14 February 2020.
Two days later, after Tarnteh published the report on Facebook, an unknown person messaged him on Facebook saying he “better stop such activities, because this is obviously the first and the last time, I am warning you on conspiring to publish false information, the next time you will be sorry for yourself.”
Tarnteh received several other threatening calls in late 2020, July 2021 and December 2021 after he documented alleged detentions for ransom by security forces in the Northen Zone, and after he published a report on abductions allegedly committed by armed separatists.
“The apparent inaction of the LRC authorities amid reports of abductions, intimidations, and repeated death threats is deeply concerning. French Cameroun must urgently meet its obligations under international human rights law by supporting and protecting human rights defenders and their crucial work,” said Samira Daoud.
It is worthy to note that most of these threats are issued by Cho Ayaba and his LRC BIR ADF axis is very famous for all atrocities, killings, kidnappings and ransom collection since the Ambazonia liberation struggle started over five years ago and counting.
Gab Ellison Reporting for UNDAUNTED - ABC Amba News.
