Ngarbuh Massacre, Ntumbaw, Cameroon, a verified report by Cameroon Anglophone Database of Atrocities
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The Ngarbuh massacre is one of many atrocities committed against civilians amidst the ongoing-armed conflict in the North West and South West Regions of Cameroon. It was on 14 February 2020 when the military accompanied by some members of the vigilante group raided the locality of Bui division in the Northwest region while killing at least 20 civilians including children and women.
The Cameroon government authorities refused to admit that the soldiers committed the atrocious act. Following widespread condemnation from the national and international stakeholders, the government authorities launched investigations and later accepted that the soldiers and some armed vigilante groups were responsible for the act. On 17 December 2020, the accused soldiers were brought before the military tribunal in Yaoundé, the political headquarters-Cameroon
It is worthy to note that there are a lot of mass killings in the trouble regions, which are not reported nor documented. The armed conflict, which started in 2016, has seen thousands of persons killed and hundreds of thousands forcefully displaced internally or externally. Thus, resulting in a humanitarian crisis, economic insecurity especially on the vulnerable population including children and elderly persons.
The Database team comprising of volunteer researchers at the Edinburgh International Justice Initiative, Leiden University, and the University of Toronto, with support from the Centre for Human Rights and Democracy in Africa (CHRDA) have documented these verified reports of some major human rights violations. in their recent release, they have published at least 8 (eight) incidents with the aid of videos, pictures and the satellite
The aim of this initiative is to store atrocities committed against civilians by both warring parties to the conflict and to promote human rights and peace. The recent verified report by the above-mentioned parties pertaining to what transpired in Ngarbuh, the North West Region of Cameroon will go a long way to be used for future purposes
Below is the summary of the Ngarbuh verified report copied from the Cameroon Anglophone Crisis Database of Atrocities Website.
The Ngarbuh Massacre drew significant international attention to the Anglophone Crisis. The Cameroon Anglophone Crisis Database of Atrocities hereafter referred to as ‘the Database,’ received the first reports of this event on February 14, 2020, the same day it occurred. Immediate efforts were undertaken to attempt to geolocate the incident, while reports continued to be submitted into the Database. In total, 14 individual reports were submitted to the Database relating to the massacre. The Database team initially identified an approximate search area, using multiple submissions of coordinates.
This search area was located south of Ntumbaw, but limited satellite imagery in the days after the event constrained the extent of analysis that could be performed. Planet Labs 3m imagery was consulted but was found to be too imprecise at that time to closely locate the incident sites. Furthermore, widespread crop burning in the area provided further challenges and complicated geospatial analysis. A Human Rights Watch report on February 25, 2020, indicated that they had identified the sites via satellite imagery; however, the imagery was not released. On March 6, 2020, a member of the New York Times Visual Investigation team created a Twitter thread showcasing their analysis of satellite imagery, highlighting some of the burned buildings. The New York Times evidence found the site of the incident to be slightly further south than suggested by the coordinates submitted to the Database. The New York Times also had higher-resolution satellite imagery than the Database had available at the time. The Database team undertook a deep review of the New York Times satellite imagery evidence, using multiple other sources of satellite data and OSINT methods to compare findings. By reviewing the video footage frame-by-frame and comparing to the site proposed by the NYT, the Database found them to be an exact match. Key features that facilitated geolocation included adjacent buildings, patterns of damage and vegetation coverage. Our analysis supports that Cameroonian military forces, along with local armed Fulani, perpetrated the Ngarbuh Massacre. Indeed, the Cameroonian government admitted culpability on April 21, 2020. The military trial for those involved in the incident is set to begin on December 17, 2020.
Read details or download pdf format of the verified report through the link below: Verified incident: Ngarbuh Massacre, Ntumbaw, Cameroon (February 2020) – Published Verification Reports (scholarsportal.info)
Berinyuy Cajetan is the founder and publisher of Human Rights and Legal Research Centre (HRLRC) since 2017. He has intensive experience in strategic communications for Civil Society Organizations, campaign and advocacy, and social issues. He has an intensive experiencing in human rights monitoring, documentation and reporting.
