LRC CARNAGE: A LOOK AT THE NGARBUH MASSACRE
3 years now and no justice.
Now unto this very important story, on the genocide in ambazonia, we take a look at the very popular even though extremely disheartening Ngarbuh Masacre, so gruesome and know that wikipedia has its description of it in details. This massacre happened in Ngarbuh, Ntumbaw, Ndu, Donga-Mantung Division, hence the tag Ngarbuh massacre. The unfortunate incident that is not an unknown incident to Ambazonians, too place on the 14th of February 2020
With the target of these murders being Civilians,
Shooting to death over 22 civilians, although some reports have it to be 35 civilians and some others 28.
A macabre act carried out by Lrc’s military with an anti-Ambazonian intention; in order words, to wipe out the peace loving peoples of ambazonia from the surface of the earth, for trying to fight for their statehood and sovereignty. The truth is you cannot carry out such an act and not pay for an outright massacre, but the question is what has been done about it? Well from Human rights watch last year, we learnt that, there was a trial for 21 people, but the trial of these 21 people accused of involvement in the killings of over 22 civilians (including children and a pregnant woman) in Ngarbuh, on February 14, 2020, dragged on for way too long.
The slow pace raised concerns about the justice system’s efficiency and ability to deliver justice to the victims. The lack of progress is compounded by the limited opportunity for access and participation by victims’ families, the lack of probative witnesses, and the fact that senior officers with command responsibility had not been arrested or charged. “When the trial started, it was welcomed as a step toward justice and tackling impunity for military abuses in Cameroon’s Anglophone regions,” said Ilaria Allegrozzi, senior Africa researcher at Human Rights Watch. “But two years after the massacre, victims and their families are still awaiting justice, while security forces have continued to commit serious human rights violations.”
The Ngarbuh killings were one of the Cameroonian security forces’ worst atrocities since the crisis in the country’s Anglophone regions began in late 2016.
The government initially denied that its security forces were responsible. But following international pressure, President Paul Biya established a commission of inquiry on March 1, 2020.
The government then admitted that its security forces bear some responsibility and announced the arrest of two soldiers and a gendarme in June 2020.
A scriptless drama isn’t it?
Human Rights Watch research concluded that government forces and armed ethnic Fulani killed 21 civilians in Ngarbuh, including 13 children and a pregnant woman, burned five homes, looted scores of other properties, and beat residents in a reprisal operation against the community suspected of harboring separatist fighters. Ethnic Fulani living in and around Ngarbuh are also known as “Mbororo” and are mainly pastoralists. The Ngarbuh trial started on December 17, 2020, before the military court in Yaoundé, Cameroon’s capital, and as at last year, it had gone through over 15 sessions. But the question is with all these trials what was the outcome? Where did all these trials lead?
The African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, has said that “all investigations must be prompt, impartial, thorough and transparent” and that failure “transparently to take all necessary measures to investigate suspicious deaths and all killings by state agents and to identify and hold accountable individuals or groups responsible for violations of the right to life constitutes in itself a violation by the state of that right.” Under international standards, including the United Nations Minnesota Protocol on the Investigation of Potentially Unlawful Death and jurisprudence from human rights bodies such as the European Court of Human Rights, for an effective investigation to be transparent, victims and their families need to have reasonable access. Instead, family members’ lawyers said that the prosecution has presented testimony from people who did not witness the killings and whose testimony is at odds with witness accounts provided during the preliminary investigation.
As if anyone was expecting honesty or justice from a banana republic. Lawyers for the victims also said that the judge in charge of the case also sits on the court of appeals, to which complaints about the trial and requests for review will be referred. “If the parties are not satisfied with the judgment and the case is referred to the appeals court, the review will be carried out by the same judge,” said Barrister Richard Tamfu, one of the family members’ lawyers. This is a blatant violation of the right to appeal to an impartial tribunal. As set out in the Principles and Guidelines on the Right to a Fair Trial and Legal Assistance in Africa, judicial impartiality is compromised if “a judicial official sits as member of an appeal tribunal in a case which he or she decided or participated in a lower judicial body.” As the trial went on, Cameroonian security forces continue to commit serious crimes in the Anglophone regions, underscoring a climate of impunity that has fueled the crisis in Cameroon’s Anglophone regions for the past five years.
Armed separatist groups have also committed abuses, including killings, kidnappings, torture, and widespread attacks on education. This highlights the urgent need for effective investigations that meet international standards into all serious abuses.
Well Allegrozzi said:
“The lack of justice for the killings of civilians in Ngarbuh and the recurring military abuses are avoidable consequences of the failure to ensure effective investigations and prosecutions,”
“Cameroonian authorities should rein in their security forces, ensure an end to abuses, and guarantee that those most responsible for the Ngarbuh killings, as well as other serious abuses, are held to account in fair and effective trials.”
Another very vital question to look at is
What justice has been brought now? Even with all the international involvements?
