A Pan African group, Africans Rising For Justice, Peace and Dignity, has urged the African Union (AU) and the Nigerian government to come to the aid of southern Cameroonian to prevent carnage.

Miss Sola Folayan, Mobilisation Officer of the group, made the call at a news conference on Tuesday in Abuja.

The group alleged gross human rights violation and abuse on the people in southern part of Cameroun by the authority.

She explained that the group’s visit to Cameroun followed a tip from spirited members of the public in the country alleging brutalisation and indiscriminate arrests of people of southern Cameroon on trumped up charges.

Southern Cameroon is mostly English-speaking, while the north part is French-speaking.

The group said that in 2016, an association representing teachers, educators and lawyers of Cameron’s anglophone South West and North West region, embarked on a strike, demanding inclusive government.

Their demand centered on promotion of English-speaking Cameroonians in the teaching and legal sectors as well as across government and society in general, both regionally and nationally.

Public protests in the southern region’s main cities, Bamenda and Buea, followed their demand in support of the strikes and against the marginalisation and deprivation of English-speaking Cameroonians.

The group said that the injustice was aided by Francophone authorities and the government of President Paul Biya, who is french-speaking.

The group said that the government, however, responded to the protest with a security crackdown that had led to reported human rights violations by the authorities and security forces.

“Killings, arbitrary arrests, detentions, torture, harassment and intimidation, internet blockade that was instituted in January and has denied million of people in the Anglophone regions access to the internet are the common denominators.”

According to the group, militarised operations, which have produced a climate of repression, fear and intimidation, is now the order of the day.

Mr Ashu Kigsley, a Cameroonian journalist and one of the victims of the human rights violation, told newsmen that he had to flee the troubled region for his safety.

He called on the UN, AU and the Nigerian government to come to the aid of Southern Cameroonian, adding that if Nigeria refused to act the crisis could escalate and increase the flow of refugees into Nigeria.

“Southern Cameroonians are the closest to Nigeria, people will move en-mass to Taraba and other states, if Nigeria refuses to intervene at this point in time.”

He said that over 400 persons had been arrested and detained while 17 persons had been killed, adding that there is serious repression in the country targeted at the south.

According to him, due to the government censoring of the internet, the southern can no longer access internet services

(Source: NAN)