Bamenda: Human Rights Commission Investigates Abuses

The Chairman of the National Commission on Human Rights and Freedoms Dr Chemuta Divine Banda encouraged dialogue towards resumption of education and judicial activities.

Allegations of human rights violations perpetrated during the current crisis rocking the North West and South West Regions was the subject of an investigation that took a mission of the National Chairman on Human Rights and Freedoms (NCHRF) to Bamenda on February 1-4, 2017. On-the-spot they went visiting the burnt 3rd Police District, visited some neighbourhoods that were the subject of arrest. They also went finding out suspects detained at the National Gendarmerie and Public Security Station in Bamenda.
Summing up, the subject of their mission, leader and chairperson of the NCHRF, Dr  Banda said the commission was as a neutral referee, on the field to gather honest opinions to produce a credible report that could help matters by giving peace a chance towards the resumption of educational and judicial activities in the North West and South West regions because the crisis is compromising the development of the region and their inhabitants. It was against this backdrop that Dr Chemuta Divine Banda challenged stakeholders that the commission members met to speak out and help the process to move forward. The mission featured audiences with a cross-section of the population. Among the lot were administrative, traditional and religious authorities, civil society organizations, political leaders, businessmen, striking trade union leaders etc. Prominent among concerns raised by inhabitants of metropolitan Bamenda featured...