The Centre for Human Rights and Democracy in Africa (CHRDA) strongly condemns the unnecessary use of an improvised explosive device (IED) at the Buea Trade Fair Event that injured an unspecified number of civilians.

On December 13, 2021, an improvised explosive device detonated at Clerks Quarters in Buea, injuring several persons. The bomb exploded on the night of December 12 breaking 13, at a Trade Fair Event organized in Buea. An unspecified number of persons were injured in the blast and were rushed to the hospital where some are in critical condition.

An armed separatist group operating in Buea and its environs known as ‘Buea Ghost Fighters’ has claimed responsibility for the attack. This recent attack at the Buea Trade Fair Centre, which happened in the South-West Region of Cameroon, comes following a series of attacks against civilians in the city of Buea, for which the Buea Ghost Fighters have been claiming responsibility.

On Monday, December 6, 2021, an IED exploded at the OIC market, Soppo-Buea, causing chaos and a premature shutdown of the market as traders and buyers escaped to save their lives. No casualties were recorded in the attack, but the locals say the attack came in an attempt to enforce Monday lockdown in Buea by armed separatist fighters.

The indiscriminate and disproportionate use of IEDs is prohibited.

Since the start of 2021, there has been a marked increase in the unlawful use of IEDs by non-state armed groups and rogue individuals, killing defense and security forces and civilians alike. The use of improvised explosive devices in situations of conflict is regulated and warring parties may use them, but only if they adhere to International Humanitarian Law, particularly the rules of distinction, proportionality and precaution in attacks. Indiscriminate use or the targeting of civilians or civilian objects is strictly prohibited.

In the context of Cameroon, the increased use of IEDs in Buea with intention to cause fear and to re-enforce the respect for ghost town and to sabotage any public event that may generate income to the government has been the strategy of non-state armed groups. Article 51(2) of Additional Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions prohibits acts or threats of violence which have the purpose of spreading terror among the civilian population,and this provision has been made without any reservations.

The incident of the attack at the Buea Trade Fair Centre at Clerks Quarters is just one among many. On November 10, 2021, the University of Buea was attacked with the use of an IED. Prior to the attack at the university, on Monday, November 1, 2021, an improvised explosive device detonated in a taxi in Molyko, allegedly dropped by separatist fighters, targeting the driver for violating the sit at home ghost town every Monday. In this attack, no human casualty was recorded, but the vehicle was damaged.

Again on Monday, December 8, 2021, exactly one week after the first taxi detonation, another blast was recorded in a taxi still in Molyko. The driver, known as Feugang Beude Laire,unfortunately died from the injuries sustained. On Thursday, November 11, 2021, the Buea Ghost Fighters attacked and burned a truck belonging to HYSACAM, a waste disposal company in Buea, claiming responsibility for the attack in a video circulating on social media in which they also announcedtheir presence in the city of Buea. One of them could be heard saying “they said we are not in Buea, here we are in Buea…this is the highway…”

The continued rise in documented unlawful use of IEDs in the North-West and South-West Regions has resulted in high civilian casualties as they target civilians, and such conduct is in violation of International Humanitarian Law and also amounts to War Crimes.

CHRDA calls on the Cameroonian government to:

To the separatist armed groups:

The Centre for Human Rights and Democracy in Africa (CHRDA) is an independent, non-governmental, apolitical and non-profit making organization created in 2005, dedicated to the protection and advancement of human rights and the promotion of democracy as a political culture in Africa. The CHRDA is based in Buea in the Southwest region of Cameroon.

For more information, please contact:

CHRDA: chrda@chrda.org