Troops Dig Up Bodies Of Kidnapped Cameroonian Officials

The remains of five government workers who were kidnapped in Cameroon’s restive South-West region in 2021 have been exhumed in a remote village, after a former separatist fighter who recently surrendered to authorities revealed that they had been killed and buried.

He then led security forces to the burial site where their bones were exhumed.

For several hours, security forces combed a forest in the administrative unit of Ndian, and found the grave where the officials were buried. It was difficult to identify them individually, as their bodies had already decomposed.

The local delegates who headed government services in Ndian division were killed in June 2021, after being kidnapped by separatists while on official assignment. For two years, little was known about their whereabouts.

In total, six delegates were kidnapped but reports say one corpse was taken to a neighbouring city in 2021. The remains of the other five have been taken to town for mourning.

Cameroon’s two Anglophone regions have been mired in a conflict since 2017, when English-speaking separatist fighters took up arms, demanding a breakaway nation.

They have been accused of gross rights violations, including kidnapping, torture, and killing. Government troops have also been accused of serious abuses and atrocities.

Source: BBC