Biya urged to stop human abuses in Boko Haram fight

President Paul Biya, Commander of the Armed Forces, has been called upon to arrest the gross abuse of human rights in the fight against the terrorist group, Boko Haram.

The call is contained in a declaration by the members of the Civil Society Forum for Democracy that met at the residence of the British High Commissioner in Yaounde recently.

Prof Tigonfack, leader of Solutions-Cameroon, the leader of Positive Generation, Cyrille Rolande Bechon, of Nouveau Droits de l’homme, NDH, and Eric Tah Kaba of Action for Citizen and Community Development, ACCOD, signed the declaration that was issued on October 8.

The declaration holds that the fight against Boko Haram is characterised by the abuse of human rights. Such abuses, they went on, are marked by arbitrary arrests, detention and torture of citizens in the Far North Region.

They equally accused Government of stripping citizens of their rights to move freely and the abuse of human dignity. It holds that the population of this Region are victims of so much human rights abuses.

The human rights activists also took exception to the tribal and ethnic twist that the fight against the sect has taken, generating accusations and counter accusations. Going by them, some officials were already stoking the fires of confusion with allegations that the Boko Haram phenomenon could be indeed a rebellion in the Northern part of the country.

Such a crisis situation, they added, has a negative bearing on the country’s democratic process. The civil society leaders called on President Biya and his Government to stop all human rights abuses on the population of the Far North Region.

While quoting article 132(5) of the Cameroonian Penal Code, the leaders stated that the fight against Boko Haram cannot be any justification for the abuse of human rights. They equally called on the President to make clarifications on the nature and evolution of the ongoing war against the Nigerian Islamic sect. They used the forum to express their support to the people of the Far North Region for the abuses they are going through.

Away from the Boko Haram issue, they took exception to the dismissal of two student leaders; Thierry Batoum and Barthelemy Tchaleu, from the Yaounde University I. They observed that the decision taken by the Minister of Higher Education, Prof. Jacques Fame Ndongo was arbitrary and runs counter to the regulations in force.

He said the duo were right in every measure to carry out a campaign against the institution of an illegal payment of FCFA 6,000 by students before being given the school identity cards.

According to them, the decision will negatively affect students’ trade unionism and compromise the future of the two students who have been suspended. It was in this perspective that the forum called for the suspension of the decision sanctioning the duo. The leaders also called for an end to the violation of students rights in all university campuses in Cameroon.

They urged government to take all necessary measures to put an end to generalised corruption and arbitrariness in Universities in Cameroon and condemned the intimidation of the human rights defenders all over the country.