Month: June 2022

Villagers in a western Cameroon town bordering Nigeria say armed men carried out a series of attacks from June 25 to 27, killing at least 30 people, including five Nigerians, and forcing hundreds to flee.

Community leaders in the town of Akwaya say one of two communities fighting over land hired separatist fighters to carry out the shootings, which the rebels deny.

Enow Daniel Kewong, the highest-ranking government health official in Akwaya, spoke to VOA via a messaging application.

“Since the incident was very horrific, we never had the courage to go to the field, so the injured were actually transported by relatives and villagers to the Presbyterian Health Center where we attended to them,” he said. “Most of the people that were brought had severe head injuries, chest injuries, while few had minor injuries. The severe injuries, we tried to stabilize them and referred them to neighboring Nigeria for continuation of care.”

Cameroon Presbyterian Church official Samuel Fonki said an unknown number of the injured died while being evacuated to Nigeria.

VOA could not independently verify if any injured from the attack arrived at Nigerian hospitals.

Fonki said the ethnic Oliti accused the Messaga Ekol people of hiring rebel fighters to carry out the attacks to try to force them from their land.

Separatists deny they were responsible for the Akwaya killings and blamed unnamed armed groups operating across the border.

Fonki said he was trying to organize peace talks between the communities to end the violence when the weekend attacks occurred.

“We were planning on how we can have peace talks to end the matter and then this unfortunate incident took place where 30 people including children, women, young girls, men and the old were massacred with support from some armed men. Some were even burned in their houses,” he said. “We want to plead that the government should put a very strong military base in Akwaya since that area is also near Nigeria.”

Cameroon’s government said troops have been deployed to protect civilians in Akwaya but gave no further details.

The intercommunal violence along the Nigerian border first broke out in April, when villagers say at least seven people were killed and plantations were destroyed.

Local clerics, community leaders and village chiefs called a meeting to seek a solution to the conflict, but the disputing sides refused to attend.

The allegation of rebels being hired guns will likely complicate peace efforts.

English-speaking separatists in western Cameroon launched an armed rebellion in 2017 to break away from the country and its French-speaking majority.

The government has blamed them for most atrocities committed in Cameroon’s English-speaking western regions, while the rebels usually blame federal troops.

The U.N. says the conflict has killed more than 3,300 people and displaced more than 750,000.

Source: Voice of America

The U.N. children’s fund says more than 266,000 violations were committed against children in armed conflict between 2005 and 2020.

An analysis of more than 30 conflicts across Africa, Asia, the Middle East and Latin America finds children continue to bear the brunt of war and are forced to endure what it calls unspeakable horrors.

Authors of a report on the subject say the figure in the report represents just a fraction of the violations believed to have occurred and does not reflect the magnitude of the crimes committed against children caught in conflict.

Tasha Gill is UNICEF’s senior adviser, Child Protection in Emergencies. She says children are victims of a staggering average of 71 verified grave violations every day. She says the report documents the killing and maiming of more than 104,000 children in conflict.

“Between 2016 and 2020, 82 percent of all verified child casualties occurred in only five situations: Afghanistan, Israel and the State of Palestine, Syria, Yemen, and Somalia. It is also important to note that many children experience more than one violation, increasing their vulnerability,” Gill said.

She notes abduction often leads to other violations, such as recruitment and sexual violence. The report has verified at least 25,700 child abductions by parties to conflict and more than 93,000 children recruited as soldiers by all parties to conflict.

Additionally, the report says children have been raped, forcibly married and sexually exploited, with at least 14,200 children also having been subjected to other forms of sexual violence. Gill calls sexual violence against children the most underreported of all violations.

“Sexual violence does occur against children. It is used as a tactic of war. It is one of the lowest numbers because of the access issue but also the stigma and fear attached to reporting in conflicts across the board … Children are often used for many different reasons, which can be considered deliberate targeting. Our request is that all parties immediately cease and desist from using children in armed conflict,” Gill said.

She notes children are recruited as soldiers, and many also are used by the warring parties as porters, sexual slaves, and messengers. She says the violations must stop.

UNICEF is calling on parties to conflict and states to abide by their obligations under international humanitarian and human rights law and implement concrete measures to protect children.

Agency officials say they have met with success in preventing some violations against children and putting a stop to others by engaging with those responsible for the violations. For example, over the past two decades they say at least 170,000 children have been released from armed forces and armed groups.

Source: Voice of America

In a reversal for President Joe Biden, a federal appeals court in New Orleans on Monday agreed to reconsider its own April ruling that allowed the administration to require federal employees to be vaccinated against COVID-19.

The new order from the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans vacates an earlier ruling by a three-judge panel that upheld the mandate. The new order means a block on the mandate imposed in January by a Texas-based federal judge remains in effect, while the full court’s 17 judges take up the appeal.

Biden had issued an order Sept. 9 requiring that more than 3.5 million federal executive branch workers undergo vaccination, with no option to get regularly tested instead, unless they secured approved medical or religious exemptions.

U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Brown, who was appointed to the District Court for the Southern District of Texas by then-President Donald Trump, issued a nationwide injunction against the requirement in January. At the time, the White House said 98% of federal workers were already vaccinated.

Brown’s ruling was followed by back-and-forth rulings at the 5th Circuit.

In February, a 5th Circuit panel refused to block Brown’s ruling pending appeal.

But after hearing arguments in March, a different panel ruled 2-1 that Brown did not have jurisdiction in the case. The panel said those challenging the requirement could have pursued administrative remedies under Civil Service law. Although the ruling was issued in April, it was not to officially take effect until May 31.

Judges Carl Stewart and James Dennis, who were nominated to the 5th Circuit by Democratic President Bill Clinton, were in the majority. Judge Rhesa Barksdale, a senior judge nominated by Republican President George H.W. Bush, dissented, saying the relief the challengers sought does not fall under the Civil Service Reform Act cited by the administration.

Barksdale is a senior judge, meaning he has a reduced case load and is no longer on active status at the court. Because he was part of the ruling panel, he can participate in the reconsideration with the active judges. Of the 17 judges currently listed as active judges at the 5th Circuit, 12 are appointees of Republican presidents, including six nominated to the court by Trump.

When the case was argued before the three-judge 5th Circuit panel in March, administration lawyers had noted that district judges in a dozen jurisdictions had rejected a challenge to the vaccine requirement for federal workers before Brown ruled.

The administration argued the Constitution gives the president, as the head of the federal workforce, the same authority as the CEO of a private corporation to require that employees be vaccinated.

Source: Voice of America