Soldiers opened fire on villagers in Missong in the North West killing 9 people including four women and four men and an 18-month-old girl.
The Ministry of Defense acknowledged yesterday, in a press release, that a patrol fired, in the crisis region of the North-West, on a crowd resulting in the death of nine civilians, “namely 4 women, 4 men and an 18-month-old girl”. In addition to the 9 dead, the army reports that a girl of about 12 months old was slightly injured. The tragedy occurred on June 1 around 6:30 p.m. in the village of Missong, Menchum division, informs the head of the communication division of the Ministry of Defense, Captain Cyrille Atonfack.
According to Serge Cyrille Atonfack Guemo, the four soldiers involved in this blunder were demobilized, extricated from the area and arrested. An investigation has been opened by the administrative authorities in order to shed light on this unfortunate incident which occurred in one of the regions plagued by the separatist crisis.
This is not the first time that the army has recognized a blunder in the separatist conflict that has shaken the North-West and South-West regions since 2017. Already in February 2020, soldiers were accused of abuse in an operation in the village of Ngarbuh, suspected of being a logistics base for secessionist militiamen.
Twenty civilians were killed. The Ministry of Defense initially denied the operation. But an investigation, prescribed by the President of the Republic, Paul Biya, admits that two soldiers, a gendarme and civilians from a self-defense group “ took part in the operation which caused the death of several people and the burning of houses “. Their trial is still ongoing at the military court in Yaoundé.
Mindef press release
