Two Cameroonian soldiers and one gendarme have been arrested for killing civilians in the country’s troubled English-speaking Northwest region, according to a statement from the presidency released Tuesday evening.
The arrested were suspected of killing three women and 10 children during an operation against armed separatists in mid-February in the village of Ngarbuh, a stronghold of separatists forces, the statement quoted the findings of a special investigation commission as saying.
The three men tried to conceal the crime by setting fires, while the head of the group “submitted a deliberately biased report.”
In February, the Cameroonian government said five civilians were killed in Ngarbuh in accidental explosions during a military offensive against the armed separatists. Some opposition parties questioning the genuineness of the report accused Cameroonian army of deliberately killing the civilians.
The trio are now facing a trial at Yaounde military court. An investigation is underway to apprehend members of the local vigilance committee who assisted the soldiers in their crime, according to the statement.
Since 2017, separatists have been fighting to create an independent nation in the two Anglophone regions of the largely-French-speaking Cameroon. Enditem
