In a statement dated February 22, 2020, the food-assistance branch of the United Nations and the world's largest humanitarian organization addressing hunger and promoting food security accused Cameroon’s military of killing a beneficiary in Ekona.

“The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) is disturbed by news of the killing of a beneficiary by military men at the site of a food distribution near Ekona, in the South West Region of Cameroon,” Saturday’s statement reads in part.

"Our sympathies and condolences are with the bereaved family,” said WFP West Africa Regional Director Chris Nikoi, "and we condemn the breach of humanitarian space by armed groups and security forces in the crisis affecting the South West and North West regions of Cameroon.”

"We strongly urge respect of humanitarian operations and the protection of civilians by all parties,” Nikoi said.

The WFP notes that violent clashes between armed groups and security forces in the two regions of Cameroon have led to displacement, leaving tens of thousands of people in need of humanitarian assistance.

Government position on allegations of military excesses

Cameroon-Info.Net recalls that Cameroon’s Minister of Communication, Rene Emmanuel Sadi had in reacting to the “reports of the killing of 22 civilians by the Defense and Security Forces in Ngarbuh” said the military is a victim of fake news, wondering how soldiers will kill the same people they are called upon to protect.

Hear him: “We should indicate that in their legal and legitimate mission, and at the price of immeasurable sacrifices, our Defence and Security Forces are at work to annihilate the macabre dynamic established in the North West and South West regions by the secessionist armed bands, I mean terror, horror and abomination, in short.

“They do so with the restraint prescribed by the High Command, and in strict compliance with the fundamental principles of Humanitarian Law focused on the protection of vulnerable people (women, children, the elderly and the disabled). It should equally be emphasized that in fulfilling their regalian mission, the Cameroonian Defence and Security Forces are called upon to pursue armed groups in their entrenchments, located both in the forests and sometimes in the homes of populations.

“Moreover, it should be noted that in their criminal operations against the populations who don’t support their cause, and against our Defence and Security Forces, armed gangs use cover-up techniques aimed at creating confusion among these populations and the general public, by wearing military uniforms, so as to impersonate the Cameroonian Armies.

“Yet, how can one believe for a moment that an army as disciplined and civic-minded as ours, can loot civilian properties and kill the people whose protection and security is their mission? Under no circumstances have our Defence and Security Forces deliberately undertaken to perpetrate abuses of any kind against the civilian populations at the service of whom they are assigned.

“The Government therefore strongly denies the fanciful and ungrounded accusations levelled by political activists, by sponsors of secessionist armed bands, by some Non-Governmental Organizations and some national and international media against our Defence and Security Forces. In the same vein, it is surprising how gullible these various actors are, to the extent that they give credit to fanciful allegations from nondescript and unreliable sources and hastily consider them as established truths.”