[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 224 (Friday, January 1, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S8007-S8008]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

  SA 2737. Mr. BOOZMAN (for Mr. Risch) proposed an amendment to the 
resolution S. Res. 684, calling on the Government of Cameroon and 
separatist armed groups from the English-speaking Northwest and 
Southwest regions to end all violence, respect the human rights of all 
Cameroonians, and pursue a genuinely inclusive dialogue toward 
resolving the ongoing civil conflict in Anglophone Cameroon; as 
follows:

       Strike the preamble and insert the following:
       Whereas Cameroon is beset with multiple security 
     challenges, including a Boko Haram insurgency in the Far 
     North region, cross-border conflict and criminality by 
     Central African militia groups to the east, and a civil war 
     involving the Government of Cameroon and Anglophone 
     separatist armed groups in the Northwest and Southwest 
     regions;
       Whereas the official actions and policies of the 
     Francophone-dominated Government of Cameroon have repressed 
     English-speaking Cameroonians politically and economically 
     throughout the history of Cameroon, dating back to the 
     reunification of British-administered Southern Cameroons and 
     French Cameroun under a federal system in October 1961;
       Whereas, in June 1972, following a national referendum, a 
     new constitution was adopted that abolished the federal 
     system, changed the name of the country from the Federal 
     Republic of Cameroon to the United Republic of Cameroon, and 
     gave additional powers to the presidency;
       Whereas Paul Biya, the oldest head of state in Africa, has 
     been the President of Cameroon since 1982, maintaining his 
     grip on power by centralizing authority in the executive, 
     undermining the Constitution of Cameroon, impeding democratic 
     governance through corrupt practices, using security services 
     to repress the opposition, and conducting elections marred by 
     widespread irregularities and allegations of fraud;
       Whereas key decentralization reforms enacted in the 
     Constitution of Cameroon in 1996, which mandated the 
     establishment of a decentralized unitary state, ``equality of 
     all citizens before the law'', the equal status of French and 
     English as official languages, and the establishment of local 
     authorities with ``administrative and financial autonomy'', 
     remain largely unrealized, though an enabling law was adopted 
     in December 2019;
       Whereas, throughout his tenure, President Biya has spent 
     extended periods in Europe, pursued government policies 
     exclusively benefitting the Francophone majority in Cameroon, 
     and crippled many parastatals and private enterprises in the 
     Northwest and Southwest regions, further marginalizing 
     English-speaking Cameroonians;
       Whereas, in October 2016, English-speaking lawyers, 
     students, and teachers in the Northwest and Southwest regions 
     of Cameroon took to the streets to peacefully protest 
     marginalization of English-speaking Cameroonians by the 
     Government of Cameroon in the legal and education systems, as 
     exemplified by the appointment of French-speaking judges and 
     teachers in the Northwest and Southwest regions and the 
     publishing of important legislation solely in the French 
     language;
       Whereas those peaceful protests by English-speaking 
     lawyers, students, and teachers were met with excessive force 
     by the police and gendarmerie of Cameroon, which led to gross 
     human rights violations, the arrest of lawyers, teachers, and 
     Anglophone civic leaders, and their detention in the 
     notorious Kondengui prison in Yaounde;
       Whereas, amid broader protests across the Northwest and 
     Southwest regions demanding greater autonomy from the central 
     government of Cameroon, on October 1, 2017, the 56th 
     anniversary of the end of British trusteeship over Southern 
     Cameroons, the Anglophone crisis escalated as separatist 
     armed groups declared independence from Cameroon;
       Whereas, in 2017, Anglophone separatist armed groups 
     responded to the repressive and violent actions of the 
     Government of Cameroon by targeting government officials and 
     facilities as well as civilians and traditional leaders seen 
     as sympathetic to the Government of Cameroon and brutally 
     enforcing ``ghost town operations'' (general strikes) and 
     school boycotts in the Northwest and Southwest regions;
       Whereas lengthy government-imposed shutdowns of the 
     internet and social media in the Northwest and Southwest 
     regions, totaling 240 days between 2017 and 2018, had a 
     devastating impact on the economies and educational 
     institutions in the regions, undermined freedom of 
     expression, prevented the free flow of information related to 
     the conflict, and restricted the ability of local communities 
     to interact and communicate;
       Whereas the conflict in the Northwest and Southwest regions 
     of Cameroon has caused considerable instability and human 
     suffering, with more than 3,000 deaths linked to the conflict 
     as of 2018, with more recent figures difficult to ascertain 
     due to lack of access to the Northwest and Southwest regions, 
     and according to United Nations agencies, as of 2020, 
     approximately 3,000,000 people in Cameroon are in need of 
     humanitarian assistance, approximately 60,000 Cameroonian 
     refugees have fled to Nigeria, and approximately 700,000 
     persons are internally displaced;
       Whereas numerous credible reports from human rights 
     monitors, including the United Nations High Commissioner for 
     Human Rights, have documented the excessive use of force by 
     government security forces against Cameroonian civilians 
     living in the Anglophone regions, including the burning of 
     villages, the use of live ammunition against protestors, 
     arbitrary arrest and detention, torture, sexual abuse, and 
     killing of civilians, including women, children, and the 
     elderly;
       Whereas the Department of State 2019 Country Report on 
     Human Rights Practices for Cameroon documented killings of 
     civilians, kidnappings, abductions, and hostage taking, 
     beatings, attacks on health workers and media, restrictions 
     on movements of persons and goods, and use of child soldiers 
     by armed Anglophone separatists;
       Whereas the United Nations Children's Fund estimates that 
     more than 855,000 children are out of school due to the 
     conflict, and the Department of State added Cameroon to the 
     Child Soldiers Prevention Act List in the 2020 Trafficking in 
     Persons Report as a foreign government ``identified during 
     the previous year as having governmental armed forces, 
     police, or other security forces, or government-supported 
     armed groups that recruit or use child soldiers'';
       Whereas United States citizen Charles Wesco was shot and 
     killed near the town of Bamenda, Cameroon, on October 30, 
     2018,

[[Page S8008]]

     and, in November 2018, the Department of State stated, ``In 
     memory of American missionary Charles Wesco and all others 
     who have lost their lives in the Anglophone Crisis, we urge 
     all sides to end the violence and enter into broad-based 
     reconciliatory dialogue without preconditions.'';
       Whereas, in June 2019, the Government of Switzerland 
     announced that, together with the Centre for Humanitarian 
     Dialogue, it was facilitating a dialogue between the 
     Government of Cameroon and armed opposition groups to support 
     a resolution of the Anglophone crisis;
       Whereas, in September 2019, President Biya hastily 
     announced a Major National Dialogue, chaired by Prime 
     Minister Ngute from September 30 to October 4, 2019, in 
     Yaounde, ``to examine the ways and means to respond to the 
     deeply-held aspirations of the populations in the Northwest 
     and Southwest'';
       Whereas, though the Major National Dialogue led to some 
     concessions by the Government of Cameroon on broader 
     democratization issues, such as the release of some political 
     prisoners, including the leader of the Cameroon Renaissance 
     Movement, Maurice Kamto, and some of his associates after 
     nine months of detention, it failed to bring separatist 
     groups to the table;
       Whereas, since the Major National Dialogue, the killing of 
     civilians and other atrocities continue to be recorded across 
     the Northwest and Southwest regions, including in towns and 
     villages such as Babanki, Bamenda, Bangem, Buea, Mamfe, 
     Muyuka, Pinyin, and Ngarbuh, and the Government of Cameroon 
     recently has resumed its attack on the political opposition, 
     placing Mr. Kamto under house arrest and detaining dozens of 
     his supporters;
       Whereas national and international outrage followed the 
     massacre of at least 23 people, including 15 children and 2 
     pregnant women, by government security forces and allied 
     militia on February 14, 2020, in Ngarbuh, Donga Mantung 
     division, in the Northwest region, and a commission of 
     inquiry established by Cameroonian authorities ultimately led 
     to the arrest and charging of 3 soldiers for murder;
       Whereas, on June 5, 2020, amidst increasing concern over 
     attacks on freedom of the press and detention of journalists 
     on politically motivated charges in recent years, Cameroon 
     authorities confirmed that an Anglophone journalist covering 
     the conflict, Samuel Ajiekah Abuwe, known as Wazizi, who was 
     arrested in August 2019 and transferred to a military 
     facility, died in custody shortly after his arrest, an 
     acknowledgment that led to widespread condemnation and calls 
     for an independent inquiry;
       Whereas the Rapid Intervention Battalion (BIR) of the 
     Government of Cameroon, which has been accused of torture and 
     extrajudicial killings and implicated in massacres like that 
     of February 14, 2020, has received training and support from 
     the United States, potentially in contravention of legal 
     requirements that ``no assistance shall be furnished . . . to 
     any unit of the security forces of a foreign country if the 
     Secretary of State has credible information that such unit 
     has committed a gross violation of human rights'';
       Whereas, in February 2019, the Department of State 
     announced that it would withhold some security assistance to 
     Cameroon, including equipment and training, citing credible 
     allegations of human rights violations by state security 
     forces and a lack of investigation, accountability, and 
     transparency by the Government of Cameroon in response;
       Whereas, on December 26, 2019, the United States terminated 
     the designation of Cameroon as a beneficiary under the 
     African Growth and Opportunity Act (19 U.S.C. 3701 et seq.) 
     because ``the Government of Cameroon currently engages in 
     gross violations of internationally recognized human 
     rights'';
       Whereas a European Parliament resolution, passed on April 
     18, 2019, urged inclusive political dialogue to resolve the 
     Anglophone crisis, called for the conflict to be considered 
     by the United Nations Security Council, and urged the 
     European Union to ``use the political leverage provided by 
     development aid and other bilateral programmes to enhance the 
     defense of human rights in Cameroon'';
       Whereas France maintains considerable interests in 
     Cameroon, including significant economic and security 
     cooperation, but has not adequately used its influence to 
     stem atrocities committed in the Anglophone regions or 
     support stronger international action to seek resolution to 
     the conflict;
       Whereas the United Nations Resident and Humanitarian 
     Coordinator for Cameroon stated on January 24, 2019, that 
     ``Cameroon can no longer be a forgotten crisis; it needs to 
     be high on our agenda'', and, on June 22, 2020, a group of 
     former world leaders and 5 Nobel Peace Laureates called on 
     the United Nations Security Council and the United Nations 
     Secretary-General, the African Union, the Commonwealth of 
     Nations, and La Francophonie to ``ensure that Cameroon's 
     Anglophone conflict is on the agenda of the forthcoming UN 
     Security Council meeting and all UNOCA sessions before the 
     UNSC'';
       Whereas, on May 13, 2019, an Arria-formula meeting on the 
     humanitarian crisis in Cameroon was held for the United 
     Nations Security Council, but a formal meeting on the 
     situation in Cameroon has not yet been placed on the United 
     Nations Security Council agenda;
       Whereas, on July 1, 2020, in Resolution 2532 (2020), the 
     United Nations Security Council unanimously underlined its 
     support of the appeal of the United Nations Secretary-General 
     for a global ceasefire in all conflicts as the world battles 
     the COVID-19 pandemic; and
       Whereas there is a significant Cameroonian diaspora in the 
     United States, and Cameroon is a longstanding security 
     partner and aid recipient of the United States, participating 
     in the Trans-Sahara Counterterrorism Partnership (TSCTP) led 
     by the Department of State and in United States-supported 
     efforts to counter Boko Haram and the Islamic State-West 
     Africa, both of which have mounted terrorist operations in 
     the Far North region of Cameroon since 2014: Now, therefore, 
     be it

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