Cameroonian Government Using Fulani Community in Armed Conflict: Catholic Peace Entity

According to the peace foundation that is monitoring the evolution of the Cameroonian violence that is in its fifth year, the military reacted by burning down houses in the neighborhood of Wanangwen in Wum, the area where the soldier was gunned down.  

DHPI has reported that the Fulani community joined the violence in protest of the killing of the military officer who was reportedly Fulani.

“The Fulani community, which makes up a very considerable part of the total population of Wum was drawn into the fray because the soldier who was killed was Fulani from the North region of Cameroon and because he had a Fulani lady from Wum as his girlfriend,” DHPI officials say in a report shared with ACI Africa October 22.

The officials narrate that within no time, the situation suddenly turned tribal as the Fulanis, armed with daggers and machetes, marched to other parts of the town and looted homes and business premises before burning down some of these.  

Sources told the SACBC peace entity that the Fulani went specifically to areas where the indigenous people of Wum are found, looting homes, businesses and then burning down houses.

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“The town of Wum being the administrative headquarter of Menchum Division, people from other parts of the country are either teachers, business people or civil servants. However, the Fulanis carefully avoided the communities of mixed people and went for the indigenes of the Aghem tribe of Wum,” officials of the charity foundation report.  

They further report that five people were killed in the incident, and add, “The most disturbing of them was an elderly man who was lacerated on different parts of his body before being left to be consumed by the fire that burnt down his house.”

Additionally, over 30 homes were razed to the ground between October 18 and October 19, rendering over 50 families homeless. 

DHPI officials report that most people fled into the bushes, with some families taking refuge in the palace of the traditional ruler of Wum, Holy Trinity and St. Martin de Porres Parishes of Cameroon’s Buea Diocese.

Further, scores of people were arrested in relation to the conflict.  

According to the SACBC peace entity, the Cameroonian government has involved the Fulani in various atrocities including killing, looting and burning down homes of innocent civilians.

“From February to March this year, the Fulanis went on rampage in Nwa Subdivision of Donga/Mantung Division of the Northwest, killing, looting and burning down homes, which led to the displacement of over 6000 people,” the officials of DHPI report, adding that of those who were displaced, some 1,000 people are still hiding in bushes.

The peace foundation that is researching conflicts in a number of other African countries notes that in 2019, the same Fulani community of Wum decimated an entire village called Buh in Wum Subdivision, burning down, among others, houses, the entire palace of Buh, killing the region’s traditional ruler, and other members of the royal family.