The Ngarbuh Massacre is one of many atrocities committed against civilians amidst the ongoing armed conflict in the North and Southwest Regions of Cameroon. It was on the 14th of February 2020 when the military accompanied by some members of the vigilante group (Mbororos) raided the locality of Bui division in the Northwest region while killing at least 20 civilians including children and women.
It is worthy to note that there are a lot of mass killings in the trouble regions, which are not reported nor documented. The conflict which started in 2016, has seen thousands of persons killed and hundreds of thousands forcefully displaced internally and externally. Thus, resulting in a humanitarian crisis, economic insecurity especially on the vulnerable population including children and elderly persons.
The Cameroon government authorities refused to admit that the soldiers committed the atrocious acts. Following widespread condemnation from national and international stakeholders, the government authorities launched investigations and later accepted that the soldiers and armed vigilante groups (Mbororos) were responsible for the act. On 17th December 2020, the accused soldiers were brought before the military tribunal in Yaounde, the political headquarters of Cameroon.
The massacre drew significant international attention to the anglophone crisis. The Cameroon Anglophone Crisis Database of Atrocities hereafter referred to as “The Database” received the first reports of this event on February 14th, 2020, the same day it occurred.
The database team comprising of volunteer researchers at the Edinburgh International justice initiative, Leiden University, University of Toronto with support from the Centre of Human Rights and Democracy in Africa have documented these verified reports of the same major human rights violation in their recent release. They have published at least eight incidents with the aid of videos, pictures, and satellites. Immediate efforts were undertaken to attempt to geolocate the incident, while reports continue to be submitted in the database.
The aim of this initiative is to store atrocities committed against civilians by both warring parties to the conflict and to promote human rights and peace. The recent verified report by the above-mentioned parties pertaining to what transpired in Ngarbuh, Northwest region of Cameroon go a long way to be used for future purposes.
In late May 2020, the military set up a base in Ngarbuh, with the stated aim of cutting off a separatist supply route from Nigeria. Within a week, more than 300 villagers had fled, fearing the presence of soldiers. On May 12th, 2020, around 30-armed vigilante (Mbororos) killed two civilians after accusing separatists of killing seven vigilantes. In October, armed vigilante killed a separatist fighter and were subsequently haunted down by separatists. One of the quarters of Ngarbuh (Ntumbaw) continue to be a battleground between separatist and the armed vigilante. Associated protests are possible in the Northwest region and other anglophone areas over the near term.
By Florence Besumbu Luma.