Human Rights Watch said today that Cameroon’s statement that an inquiry has been launched into the alleged murder of nine civilians by government troops in Missong village, North-West region, on June 1, 2022, is a crucial first step towards securing accountability.
In a June 7 press release, Colonel Cyrille Serge Atonfack Guemo, a spokesman for the Cameroonian army, officially recognised military culpability for the Missong deaths and described them as “a serious and unfortunate incident.” Four troops, he claimed, have been detained, and an inquiry has been launched. He also sent the families of the deceased his condolences.
“The admission of responsibility by the army and the announcement of an investigation are crucial steps toward justice for these serious crimes,” said Ilaria Allegrozzi, senior Central Africa researcher at Human Rights Watch.
“The authorities now need to ensure that the investigation is thorough, impartial and independent, and capable of establishing a clear timeline of events and the identification of all those responsible, including in the chain of command, with an aim toward prosecution.”
Human Rights Watch conducted telephone interviews with six Missong residents between June 2 and July 5, including five locals who had seen the executions and “the fon,” a traditional leader. In addition, Human Rights Watch looked through three images and four videos that were supplied with its researchers and showed some of the victims’ bodies after they had been buried. In an email sent to Atonfack on June 27, Human Rights Watch informed him of the results. Atonfack remained silent.
In the June 7 news release, Atonfack claimed that while looking for a missing soldier, a group of “defiant villagers” confronted soldiers from the 53rd Bataillon d’infanterie motorisée (or BIM), who in a “manifestly disproportionate” and “hasty” response opened fire, killing nine civilians, including four women and an 18-month-old girl. Human Rights Watch did not find any proof that the locals provoked the troops into using fatal force or that there was any form of conflict between the soldiers and the residents.
“They [soldiers] started shooting randomly,” said a woman who lives in Missong and who was there. “There was no violent villager, there was no confrontation whatsoever. They came and killed our people. It was a savage act without any justification. As soon as we saw what was going on, we ran into the bush, and we stayed there until the following morning.”
According to the fon and the witnesses, national soldiers set a camp in Abar, less than one kilometre from Missong, in the middle of May. They were welcomed by the locals when they frequently visited Missong to obtain supplies from there.
They claimed that on June 1, troops and locals arrived at the fon’s house early in the morning to eat and obtain food. After the gathering, all but two of the troops walked back to their barracks, and the two who were still there proceeded to a Missong resident’s house to drink and reportedly consume drugs. The commander sent two more soldiers to Missong to look for the two when he noticed they were gone.
Residents of Missong told Human Rights Watch that the soldiers sent to the village did not discover the two soldiers right away and believed that separatist rebels operating nearby had murdered or abducted them. They assassinated nine persons who were thought to be sheltering separatist fighters in apparent reprisal.
The attack left their 14-month-old kid injured and their 28-year-old wife dead, according to a 31-year-old businessman:
The military were shooting, and we ran into the house to seek shelter. I hid under the bed. Three soldiers broke in, dragged my wife outside, and shot her. She was shot in the right arm and in the neck. One of the bullets hit the baby she was carrying in her arms. The baby was injured in his left leg. I heard the soldiers saying in Pidgin English: ‘This animal has survived,’ referring to my child.
A Missong resident aged 22 said:
We saw the soldiers shooting at ‘njangi house,’ the place where they [the missing soldiers] had gone. They shot furiously and we ran toward the nearby bush as fast as we could. When we came back, we found five bodies there and four more in the village, including the one of a child and the fon’s son.
Residents said that on June 2, the nine victims’ remains were buried.
Since 2016, Cameroonian security personnel have routinely violated human rights in the Anglophone areas, and the attack in Missong is not an isolated incident in this pattern. Rarely do government comments that acknowledge misbehaviour by the military exist. In the past, the authorities have denied reports that their troops have violated serious human rights in areas where English is spoken. They have also accused those who have brought these reports to light, including Human Rights Watch, of spreading separatist propaganda and attempting to destabilise Cameroon.
One incident was the deaths of 21 people, including 13 children, in Ngarbuh village, North-West area, on February 14, 2020. At first, the government denied military involvement in the killings. Later, under intense domestic and international criticism, they acknowledged that soldiers were responsible for the slaughter.
Serious human rights violations have also been committed by separatist rebels fighting for independence for Cameroon’s two English-speaking regions, including homicides, kidnappings, and extensive assaults on educational institutions.
“The government’s decision to go public about the killings, to open an investigation and arrest four soldiers hopefully indicates an end to denying and hiding the truth around serious human rights abuses,” Allegrozzi said. “The authorities should report on the progress of the investigation and make the findings public.”