Recent killings in NW, SW: Opposition Parties Renew Calls For Ceasefire Talks & General Amnesty

By Doh Bertrand Nua in Yaounde 

Some opposition political parties have in recent outings following the current wave of attacks and killings across the North West and South West regions renewed calls for an urgent need for ceasefire talks to hold as well as general amnesty to those arrested in connection to the conflict. 

Opposition politician, Kamto Maurice

In separate outings made by the Popular Action Party (PAP) and the Cameroon Renaissance Movement (CRM), on the killing of close to nine persons in Mautu village, near Muyuka in the South West, both parties have stated the aforementioned measures and others will be the only way to curb the violence. 

“We continue to reiterate that genuine inclusive dialogue in a neutral location, the release of all arrested, a general amnesty to all sons and daughters of Cameroon in the diaspora,” partly read the 13 January 2021 PAP release signed by the party president, Njang Denis Tabe. 

Njang went further calling on the President of the Republic, Paul Biya to “relinquish power for a peaceful political transition” which to the party “will go a long way to solve the crisis and other crises”. Njang accused soldiers of perpetrating the Mautu killings but called on the population to exercise restrain. 

“It is out of question that women, mothers and children be killed by regular state forces in the name of fighting the separatist fighters. The PAP warns the Yaoundé regime to beware of the tempting provocation brought to bear on the peace-loving people of MAUTU and the Southern Cameroons in general,”Njang cautioned, while advising locals not to fall into any temptation from belligerents. 

On his part, the leader of the CRM party, Prof Maurice Kamto in a social media outing described the Mautu killings as “one more horror” in the ongoing armed conflict. 

“How many more deaths will it take for the guns to fall silent and for a political solution to finally be initiated in the NOSO?” Kamto rhetorically questioned. 

He said the only way out for the return to normalcy and peace in the two regions is for immediate ceasefire, the release of arrested and detained Anglophones, inclusive political dialogue on the form of the state and reforms on the electoral code.