Crackdown ‘inflames crisis’

THE government’s military response in two regions of Cameroon where English-speaking separatists are campaigning for an independent state has inflamed the crisis, Amnesty International said yesterday.

In a 37-page report, the human-rights watchdog said it had catalogued “unlawful killings, destruction of private property land and arbitrary arrests and torture” carried out by the security forces since late last year.

“Far from resolving the crisis, the clampdown on any form of dissent and the heavy-handed response by the Cameroonian authorities and security forces appear to have empowered and created space for more radical and violent movements to emerge, with a focus on secession and armed struggle,” it said.

The unrest is in territory once governed by colonial Britain that joined French-speaking Cameroon after it gained independence from France in 1960. – AFP