Situation in North West, South West: Security Measures To Be Strengthened Until Order Permanently Reigns

Below is the declaration of the Minister of Communication, Issa Tchiroma Bakary on the balance sheet of October 1, 2017 events in the North West and South West Regions

“Distinguished Journalists,
I wish you all a warm welcome to this meeting for an update on the crisis situation in the North-west and South-West regions in the aftermath of October 1, 2017, date on which the secessionists had planned numerous operations of violence and antisocial conduct with the apex being the proclamation of the independence of their fictitious state.
I will also mention the situation on the front in the Far-North where our Defense and Security Forces continue to curb the terrorist moves of the Boko Haram criminal organization.
As far as the Far North is concerned, I am announcing that this Monday morning at 5:10 a.m, a double suicide attack took place in Mozogo in the Mayo Moskota Subdivision in the Mayo Tsanaga Division.
The bombing resulted in 03 deaths, including the two female suicide bombers and a civilian named Oumar Madi. As you can see, our Defense and Security Forces are still committed in the Far North facing an enemy now defeated on the battlefield, and reduced to acts of cowardice such as the latest attack.
But as you know, with the terrorist turn of secessionist claims in the North-west and South-west Regions, our Security Forces have been facing armed attacks by insurgents claiming to be members of the secessionist movement.
Distinguished Journalists,
As I said in my last two addresses on this matter – and I repeat it here: we are henceforth in the presence of a full-fledged terrorist undertaking.
In this regard, permit me to say a word to a few who, in recent days, seemed to have seen a problem when the violence perpetrated by the armed wing of the secessionist movement was qualified as terrorist actions.
Let me remind them of the following definition of terrorism under international law: any action […] that is intended to cause death or serious bodily harm to civilians and non-combatants, with the purpose of intimidating a population or compelling a Government or an international Organization to do or abstain from doing an act.
With regard to Cameroon’s legislation, Article 2 of Law No. 2014/028 of 23 Decembre 2014 on the suppression of acts of terrorism defines terrorism as any act or threatened act likely to cause death, to endanger the life, to cause damage or injury, as well as damage to natural resources, environmental or cultural heritage with the intention to:
- intimidate the population, cause fear or coerce the victim, the government and / or organization, national or international, to do or to abstain from doing any act, to adopt or abandon a particular position or to act according to certain principles;
- disrupt the normal functioning of public services, the provision of essential services to the public or to create a crisis within populations;
- provoke insurgency in the country;
As a matter of fact, we are here dealing with such acts, those who commit them, those who mastermind them and those who make themselves accomplices of such deeds.
I should recall that, each time, the secessionists have not only publicly announced that they are going to commit such acts, but they have always claimed responsibility for their acts after executing them, that they have advertised them through the media and social networks and that they promise to re-offend until their fantasies come true.
Thus, after announcing they would disturb public order and threatening the institutions and territorial integrity, through numerous messages circulated online through the propaganda organs of the secessionists, the Head of State, Commander-in-Chief of the Army, and Supreme Commander of the Security Forces, prescribed a series of measures in order to preserve peace in the North-West and South-West Regions.
By and large, the balance sheet of the operations conducted by our Defense and Security Forces faced with the attacks against them on October 1, 2017 is positive. Our Forces have not only shown great professionalism but also a great restraint in the face of many acts of provocation and open aggression committed in several major localities of these two Regions.
The death toll is about ten people among the assailants, including five who died during the attempted mass escape from Kumbo prison, organized by the detainees themselves.
To do so, the inmates orchestrated a fire start with the intention of burning a whole section of the prison building, use it as a shield and vanish into thin air. It was then that the prison guards assisted by the other Security Forces neutralized them.
Among the five dead, two prisoners were killed as they were trampled on into the fray.
One hundred and thirty-five inmates of this prison stayed calm and remained on the spot. They were immediately transferred to the Bamenda Central Prison by the means of the Defense and Security Forces.
On the side of the Defense and Security Forces, there are about a dozen wounded by bullets. They have been provided medical attention by the military health services.
Apart from the five prisoners who died in their attempt to escape, the other deaths recorded among the assailants occurred as part of regulatory retaliation, following the shooting of weapons of war of all calibers, hunting and trafficking guns, by means of which the assailants attacked the Defense and Security Forces.
As it was, snubbed snippers gunpointed and systematically opened fire on the elements of the Defense and Security Forces.
Thus, at Etilwindi, Kumba II Subdivision, in the Meme Division, 2 gendarmes were seriously wounded by buckshot. It was in these circumstances that one of the five assailants was killed.
In Banguem, in the Koupé Manengouba Division, the Commander of the Gendarmerie Brigade was wounded while on intervention.
A number of very daring aggressions against the local administrative and military authorities were also recorded in Belo, where the vehicle of the Senior Divisional Officer of the Donga Mantung Division was set on fire.
In several other localities, the vehicles of the administrative authorities as well as intervention vehicles of the Defense and Security Forces were stoned or burnt in large numbers.
Significant damage to property in the public domain was recorded (DO and SDO offices, hospitals, courts, buildings of regional and divisional services). Several school campuses were set on fire, such as the "Seat of Wisdom" College, where there was a fire start that was stopped by the Defense Forces and the population.
In Mamfé, more than 400 armed men attacked the city via the Satom Bridge.
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