A resolution 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.

III 116TH CONGRESS 2D SESSION S. RES. 684 Calling on the Government of Cameroon and separatist armed groups from the English-speaking Northwest and Southwest regions to end all vio- lence, respect the human rights of all Cameroonians, and pursue a genuinely inclusive dialogue toward resolving the ongoing civil conflict in Anglophone Cameroon. IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES SEPTEMBER 8, 2020 Mr. RISCH (for himself, Mr. CARDIN, Mr. YOUNG, Mr. LANKFORD, Mr. RUBIO, Mr. MARKEY, Mr. COONS, Mr. VAN HOLLEN, Ms. BALDWIN, Mr. DURBIN, Mr. WARNER, Mr. MERKLEY, Mr. KAINE, Mr. SULLIVAN, Mr. CRUZ, Mr. BOOKER, Mr. BROWN, Ms. KLOBUCHAR, Ms. SMITH, and Mr. MURPHY) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations JANUARY 1, 2021 Committee discharged; considered, amended, and agreed to with an amended preamble RESOLUTION 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 inclu- sive dialogue toward resolving the ongoing civil conflict in Anglophone Cameroon. Whereas Cameroon is beset with multiple security challenges, including a Boko Haram insurgency in the Far North re- VerDate Sep 11 2014 21:31 Jan 01, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6300 E:\BILLS\SR684.ATS SR684 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 2 SRES 684 ATS gion, cross-border conflict and criminality by Central Af- rican 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 economi- cally throughout the history of Cameroon, dating back to the reunification of British-administered Southern Cam- eroons 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 Fed- eral 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 execu- tive, undermining the Constitution of Cameroon, imped- ing democratic governance through corrupt practices, using security services to repress the opposition, and con- ducting elections marred by widespread irregularities and allegations of fraud; Whereas key decentralization reforms enacted in the Con- stitution of Cameroon in 1996, which mandated the es- tablishment 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 au- tonomy’’, remain largely unrealized, though an enabling law was adopted in December 2019; VerDate Sep 11 2014 21:31 Jan 01, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6300 E:\BILLS\SR684.ATS SR684 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 3 SRES 684 ATS Whereas, throughout his tenure, President Biya has spent ex- tended periods in Europe, pursued government policies exclusively benefitting the Francophone majority in Cam- eroon, and crippled many parastatals and private enter- prises in the Northwest and Southwest regions, further marginalizing English-speaking Cameroonians; Whereas, in October 2016, English-speaking lawyers, stu- dents, and teachers in the Northwest and Southwest re- gions of Cameroon took to the streets to peacefully pro- test marginalization of English-speaking Cameroonians by the Government of Cameroon in the legal and edu- cation 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 deten- tion 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 re- sponded to the repressive and violent actions of the Gov- ernment of Cameroon by targeting government officials and facilities as well as civilians and traditional leaders VerDate Sep 11 2014 21:31 Jan 01, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6300 E:\BILLS\SR684.ATS SR684 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 4 SRES 684 ATS seen as sympathetic to the Government of Cameroon and brutally enforcing ‘‘ghost town operations’’ (general strikes) and school boycotts in the Northwest and South- west regions; Whereas lengthy government-imposed shutdowns of the inter- net and social media in the Northwest and Southwest re- gions, totaling 240 days between 2017 and 2018, had a devastating impact on the economies and educational in- stitutions in the regions, undermined freedom of expres- sion, 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, ap- proximately 60,000 Cameroonian refugees have fled to Nigeria, and approximately 700,000 persons are inter- nally displaced; Whereas numerous credible reports from human rights mon- itors, 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; VerDate Sep 11 2014 21:31 Jan 01, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6300 E:\BILLS\SR684.ATS SR684 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 5 SRES 684 ATS 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 Traf- ficking in Persons Report as a foreign government ‘‘iden- tified during the previous year as having governmental armed forces, police, or other security forces, or govern- ment-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, 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 vio- lence and enter into broad-based reconciliatory dialogue without preconditions.’’; Whereas, in June 2019, the Government of Switzerland an- nounced that, together with the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue, it was facilitating a dialogue between the Gov- ernment of Cameroon and armed opposition groups to support a resolution of the Anglophone crisis; Whereas, in September 2019, President Biya hastily an- nounced 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 VerDate Sep 11 2014 21:31 Jan 01, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6300 E:\BILLS\SR684.ATS SR684 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 6 SRES 684 ATS 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 polit- ical prisoners, including the leader of the Cameroon Ren- aissance Movement, Maurice Kamto, and some of his as- sociates after nine months of detention, it failed to bring separatist groups to the table; Whereas, since the Major National Dialogue, the killing of ci- vilians 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 Govern- ment of Cameroon recently has resumed its attack on the political opposition, placing Mr. Kamto under house ar- rest and detaining dozens of his supporters; Whereas national and international outrage followed the mas- sacre of at least 23 people, including 15 children and 2 pregnant women, by government security forces and al- lied militia on February 14, 2020, in Ngarbuh, Donga Mantung division, in the Northwest region, and a com- mission 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 journal- ists on politically motivated charges in recent years, Cam- eroon authorities confirmed that an Anglophone jour- nalist 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 VerDate Sep 11 2014 21:31 Jan 01, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6300 E:\BILLS\SR684.ATS SR684 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 7 SRES 684 ATS after his arrest, an acknowledgment that led to wide- spread condemnation and calls for an independent in- quiry; Whereas the Rapid Intervention Battalion (BIR) of the Gov- ernment 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 contraven- tion of legal requirements that ‘‘no assistance shall be furnished . . . to any unit of the security forces of a for- eign country if the Secretary of State has credible infor- mation that such unit has committed a gross violation of human rights’’; Whereas, in February 2019, the Department of State an- nounced 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 re- sponse; Whereas, on December 26, 2019, the United States termi- nated 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 cur- rently engages in gross violations of internationally recog- nized 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 VerDate Sep 11 2014 21:31 Jan 01, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6300 E:\BILLS\SR684.ATS SR684 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 8 SRES 684 ATS by development aid and other bilateral programmes to enhance the defense of human rights in Cameroon’’; Whereas France maintains considerable interests in Cam- eroon, including significant economic and security co- operation, 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 Co- ordinator 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 Laure- ates 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 Sec- retary-General for a global ceasefire in all conflicts as the world battles the COVID–19 pandemic; and VerDate Sep 11 2014 21:31 Jan 01, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00008 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6300 E:\BILLS\SR684.ATS SR684 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 9 SRES 684 ATS 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, partici- pating in the Trans-Sahara Counterterrorism Partner- ship (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 Resolved, That the Senate— 1 (1) strongly condemns abuses committed by 2 state security forces and armed groups in the North- 3 west and Southwest [Text truncated for display. Full text available on Congress.gov.]