Some three women in the community of Lassin, Bui Division of the North West region have been killed by armed separatists, after they were accused of witchcraft practices.
Sources say the incident which occurred two days ago, and the video shared on social media, took many aback, as the population is yet to deal with the murder of a woman in Batibo subdivision, who was accused of acting as a spy.
As the story goes, armed separatists initially accused five women of witchcraft, after one of their fighters was mysteriously killed. To avenge his death, they picked out five suspects, who went through some rituals and finally three of the five were executed.
Women have recently being a target by the said Ambazonia fighters, after several videos shared from their camps show women, being tortured or killed for acting as government spies.
Human rights organisations had cautioned armed separatists as well as military to desist from carrying out unjust killings and other violations on the communities they operate in. Other pressure groups have made similar remarks about armed separatists, but some however, keep carrying out these violations.
Concerned about the crimes committed by their fighters on the ground, one of the separatist leaders in the diaspora, Tapang Ivo made a video on Facebook, where he called on the fighters to stop attacking civilians or they would loose international support towards the recognition of their state called Ambazonia. He regretted that since 2018, a demon had entered their struggle for independence called politics.
" I don't know whatever demon came into 2018. Believe me our biggest weakness has been the demon that came into 2018.Politics first! When we started politicising the struggle, that was the demon".
Tapang warned that the international community will stop supporting them, if they continue committing human rights offences against civilians.
".. You should not chop off people's fingers and the hands and the rest. That is what whites don't and will never side with you", lamented the separatist.
He expressed regrets that the Human Rights Watch group which has often written about atrocities committed by President Paul Biya's government has for the first time focused in one of its latest reports on atrocities committed by separatists.
CIN