By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai with files from Sama Ernest and Rita Akana
8, February 2017
Cameroon Intelligence Report has collected figures from 6 detention centers in Douala, Bafoussam and Yaoundé giving a total of at least 102 killed in the unrest in Southern Cameroons since 2016. The breakdown of these figures is: 52 in Yaoundé- Sao, 40 in Douala, and 10 in Bafoussam. These figures are based on unofficial cables obtained from Francophone government sources at the Kondengui prison in Yaoundé and security sources including medical doctors in Douala and Bafoussam.
(FILES) A file photo taken on April 16, 2014 shows people watching a convoy of French troops of the Sangaris forces driving between Grimari and Bambari, in the center of the Central African Republic. On December 5, 2013 an explosion of hatred spreads through the capital Bangui. Hundreds of corpses lay in the streets before the lauch of the French military operation, called Sangaris. A year later, large scale massacres have stoppped in Central Africa, but the country is ruined and torn apart. AFP PHOTO / MIGUEL MEDINA
Authorities in the Ministry of Communication have rejected our findings and those of the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium as false, and said that the ministry would issue an official death toll when told to do so by the presidency of the republic. The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Africa Union have both turned a blind eye on the genocide going on in Anglophone Cameroon.
In detention facilities in French Cameroun, our intelligence officers obtained unofficial lists with names of those who had died and buried in mass graves. We have received figures of the number of persons killed during the protests from doctors in Kumba, Buea, Kumbo and Bamenda who were on duty on the emergency wards. Our intelligence officers also regularly visited the many torture facilities in Douala, Edea and Mbouda and obtained the number of confirmed deaths from doctors there.
According to anonymous Francophone government sources, many of these deaths occurred in 2016 as a result of live gunfire and rubber bullets. A significant proportion of deaths were caused by teargas canisters fired at close range in Bamenda and Kumbo. Access to the Kondengui high security prison and the detention center at the Secretariat for Defense was very difficult and only possible after personal assurances that Cameroon Intelligence Report would protect the names of the security agents who agreed to speak to us. Cameroon Intelligence Report has been unable to see death certificates citing causes of death or to gather the names of all those killed. In all the cases, families have also been unable to obtain certificates stating the cause of death.
Some of the Francophone security personnel who spoke to our undercover reporters hinted that the prison wardens have been under pressure to downplay the overall number of deaths. A senior aide to the regime in Yaounde who hails from the Foumban constituency in the West region observed that it is possible the actual number of deaths is significantly higher than the 102 reported to our investigative team because that figure is based on only three localities.
By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai with files from Sama Ernest and Rita Akana