In the Far North region, Boko Haram regularly carries out kidnappings and killings, including suicide attacks targeting schools and civilians; since the insurgency began in 2009, at least 3,000 Cameroonians have been killed. In addition to Boko Haram’s attacks on schools in the Far North, schools have been targeted by armed non-state groups in the Anglophone North-West and South-West regions with lethal results, while government forces have also contributed to some violent incidents. The Cameroonian government’s continued repressive measures including crackdowns on political opposition and free speech, as well as its use of incommunicado detention, has compounded the suffering of Cameroonian nationals.
Conflict in the Anglophone regions has internally displaced more than 570,000 Cameroonians inside the North-West and South-West, and pushed over 70,000 more vulnerable people to seek refuge in Nigeria. The Cameroonian government’s brutal crackdown on protests led by Anglophone teachers, students, and lawyers, who protested unfair treatment and marginalization by the majority Francophone Government, contributed to the forming of armed non-state groups and a deadly conflict. In recent years, the violence has escalated to such an extent that – between government forces and armed non-state groups – horrifying human rights violations like kidnapping, rape, torture, extrajudicial killings, and the burning of schools, infrastructure, or even entire villages have become commonplace. Since the conflict began in late 2016, at least 4,000 civilians have been killed in the country’s Anglophone regions alone.
