A group of international lawyers have identified and are gathering more evidence on genocide in the English-speaking regions of Cameroon

The information was revealed at a press briefing in Yaounde on March 1, by Barrister Bernard Acho Muna, Former Deputy Prosecutor at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. He is also lead counsel for leaders of the Anglophone Civil Society Consortium who are being tried for terrorism, rebellion, unlawful assembly etc.

The group of lawyers, led by renowned advocate, Karim Ahmad Khan, British lawyer and specialist in international criminal law and international human rights law, visited Cameroon to carry out investigations at the behest of Barrister Muna with whom some of them served in Rwanda. Muna told reporters in Yaounde that the lawyers say they have found ample evidence that a genocide is being committed in the North West and South West regions where protesters have paralysed schools and court rooms.

The proofs of genocide, he said, will be presented either to the International Criminal Court, ICC, the United Nations, UN, or the International Criminal Court of Justice, ICJ for perpetrators of such crimes to be brought to book.

Barrister Muna, who is a former president of the Cameroon Bar Council, disclosed that he provided some of the evidence the lawyers examined. He said he would have sued the perpetrators of genocide by himself, but contacted the lawyers to carry out the investigation in order to avoid a situation where his emotions would discredit evidence.

“Since I am a citizen of the country in crisis, it would have been difficult for me to prepare an objective report. I have prosecuted people involved in perpetration of genocide in Rwanda. I know the seriousness of the matter.” He said.

The legal colossus also pointed out that genocide is not just about killing. He said a genocide may include infringement on the way of life of a people by killing the members of the group, causing serious mental harm to the members of the group, deliberately inflicting on the group’s conditions of life calculated to bring about the physical destruction of the whole or part of the group. “Collective punishment such as internet shutdown is prohibited by the 1949 Geneva Convention” he said.