Atleast 14 children dead in Cameroon massacre- United Nations

According to the United Nations, as many as 22 villagers, including 14 children, were found dead in the Anglophone area of Cameroon, with an opposition party blaming the killings on the army.

A local official with the UN’s humanitarian coordination agency OCHA, James Nunan, stated that the Armed men carried out the massacre on Friday in the village of Ntumbo in the Northwest Region.

According to Nunan, up to 22 civilians were killed, including a pregnant woman, totaling 14 children, nine under age five were among the dead. Eleven of the children were girls, said Nunan, head of OCHA’s office for the Northwest and Southwest regions, which are home to the West African country’s large English-speaking minority.

According to report, an eye-witness who spoke on condition of anonymity fearing reprisals, confirmed the massacre and said he helped bury 21 bodies in “four graves in four different compounds” with the help of an associate.

The witness also stated that nine houses were also set ablaze and an unknown number of villagers displaced. Separatists in the regions have been fighting the central government for three years.

One of the country’s two main opposition parties, the Movement for the Rebirth of Cameroon (MRC), issued a statement saying: “The dictatorial regime [and] the supreme head of the security and defence forces is chiefly responsible for these crimes.”

A key figure in the separatist movement, lawyer Agbor Mballa, in a Facebook post also accused “state defence forces” of carrying out the killings.

An army official denied the allegations saying simply: “False.” No other official comment was immediately available.

According to Felix Agbor Balla, director of the Centre for Human Rights and Democracy in Africa said in a tweet on Monday that:  “Those responsible for these heinous crimes must be brought to justice. This culture of impunity must stop,”