Leading opposition party in Cameroon, SDF condems the government for heavy militarisation of English speaking regions
speaking region that has been under crisis for more than a year.
“The situation is deplorable! Nothing is going well. Military check points are numerous in all English-speaking communities. This is serious”, the Secretary General of the party,Honorable Jean Tsomelou, told pressmen during a conference in Yaounde.
“We have observed troop movements in both regions. The government has spoken of thousands (of troops) who are in the Southwest and Northwest,” he said.
“Abuse has been committed” against local people, he said.
In September and October, “live fire was targeted against people who were simply carrying a message of peace,” he charged.
Tsomelo also revealed that the party’s parliamentary group is planning to visit the regions in days ahead. This visit, he went on, will be aimed at talking with the population of these regions in the bid to better understand their demands, while presenting the results of SDF actions in 2017.
The SDF lawmaker singled out Cameroon’s 84-year-old president, Paul Biya, for sharp criticism, saying he “let the situation degenerate” in the two regions in order to justify his crackdown.
“It’s a problem that could have been resolved by dialogue,” he said.
On December 1, Biya lashed the secessionists as “a band of terrorists” and vowed to carry out every measure “to incapacitate these criminals.”
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