IV 
117TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. RES. 895 
Strongly condemning ongoing violence and human rights abuses stemming 
from Cameroon’s Anglophone crisis. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
FEBRUARY 1, 2022 
Ms. BASS submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the 
Committee on Foreign Affairs 
RESOLUTION 
Strongly condemning ongoing violence and human rights 
abuses stemming from Cameroon’s Anglophone crisis. 
Whereas many Anglophone Cameroonians have long felt 
marginalized by official actions and policies of the Gov-
ernment of Cameroon, including the abolishment of a fed-
eral form of government, which was the constitutional 
basis under which English-speaking Southern Cameroons 
entered into the union, and replacing it with a unitary 
state dominated by the Francophone majority; 
Whereas, beginning in late 2016, protests organized by law-
yers, teachers, and students were violently repressed by 
the Government of Cameroon, leading to numerous 
deaths and imprisonments, including of journalists, 
teachers, lawyers, and an Anglophone judge on the coun-
try’s Supreme Court; 
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Whereas the conflict escalated in late September and early 
October 2017, when Cameroonian security forces brutally 
cracked down on peaceful Anglophone civilian demonstra-
tors, resulting in dozens of deaths and leaving over 100 
injured; 
Whereas, since 2017, separatists launched a campaign to 
pressure school officials in the Northwest and Southwest 
Anglophone regions to go on strike as part of a boycott 
against the Government of Cameroon, and have been re-
portedly— 
(1) burning, damaging, looting, and destroying 
school buildings; 
(2) killing, beating, abducting, threatening, and ter-
rorizing students and educational professionals with vio-
lence if they did not comply with a boycott; 
(3) harassing and intimidating families into keeping 
their children out of school; and 
(4) kidnapping for ransom children and teachers 
who defied the boycott in various schools, such as Kumbo 
(Bui division), Fundong (Boyo division) and Limbe 
(Fako division); 
Whereas numerous human rights monitors have documented 
armed separatists killing traditional leaders and targeting 
civilians, including women, children, and the elderly, who 
are perceived to be supporting or working with the Gov-
ernment of Cameroon, and reports indicate that armed 
separatists have killed scores of security force personnel; 
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 
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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 has expressed serious con-
cern over the manner in which the Government of Cam-
eroon has used force to unlawfully restrict the rights to 
free expression and peaceful protest that are protected 
under the Cameroonian Constitution and international 
law; 
Whereas the Government of Cameroon has charged journal-
ists, social activists, and members of political opposition 
parties with terrorism-related crimes and prosecuted 
them in military tribunals; 
Whereas the indiscriminate nature of violent clashes between 
Cameroonian security forces and separatist groups often 
results in the death of innocent bystanders, including 
American missionary Charles Wesco, who was killed in 
October 2018 by crossfire in the Northwestern city of 
Bamenda; 
Whereas the Government of Cameroon arrested over 500 
members and supporters of the opposition Cameroon 
Renaissance Movement (MRC) following peaceful protests 
in September 2020, and allegedly subjected many detain-
ees to harsh and inhumane detention conditions, includ-
ing isolated imprisonment, denial of access to lawyers, 
and physical abuse; 
Whereas over 100 of those arrested in late 2020 remain in 
detention, including 47 sentenced to prison in December 
2021; 
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Whereas the Government of Cameroon continued to place 
bans on MRC’s attempts to hold peaceful protests, and 
civil society reported that security forces interfered with 
MRC registration processes in Yaounde´, Douala, and 
Bafoussam in February 2019; 
Whereas the Government of Cameroon has repeatedly re-
stricted freedoms of expression by shutting down the 
internet, harassing and detaining journalists, refusing li-
censes to independent media, and intensifying political 
attacks against the independent press; 
Whereas the United Nations High Commissioner for Refu-
gees estimated that as of December 2021, more than 
575,500 people were internally displaced in areas affected 
by the Anglophone conflict, and there were an additional 
383,500 returnees to the Northwest and Southwest re-
gions; 
Whereas the Office of the United Nations High Commis-
sioner for Refugees reports that roughly 72,000 
Cameroonian refugees have registered in Nigeria; 
Whereas, on July 23, 2019, the House of Representatives 
unanimously passed House Resolution 358, calling on the 
Government of Cameroon and armed groups to respect 
the human rights of all Cameroonian citizens, to end all 
violence, and to pursue a broad-based dialogue without 
preconditions to resolve the conflict in the Northwest and 
Southwest regions; 
Whereas, effective January 1, 2020, the Trump Administra-
tion terminated Cameroon’s eligibility for African Growth 
and Opportunity Act (AGOA) benefits, citing deep con-
cerns over ‘‘persistent gross violations of human rights 
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being committed by the Cameroonian government against 
its own citizens’’; 
Whereas, on June 7, 2021, the United States responded to 
continued conflict in Cameroon by imposing visa restric-
tions on individuals undermining the peaceful resolution 
of the ongoing crisis; 
Whereas a prominent Cameroonian lawyer and opposition 
member of the senate, Henry Kemende was shot dead by 
suspected separatist fighters in the city of Bamenda on 
January 11, 2022; and 
Whereas multiple brutal massacres have taken place and alle-
gations of rape and gross violations of internationally rec-
ognized human rights continue, and as of December 
2021, Human Rights Watch estimated that at least 
4,000 lives have been lost during the crisis since late 
2016: Now, therefore, be it 
Resolved, That the House of Representatives— 
(1) continues to strongly condemn the abuses 
committed in Cameroon’s Anglophone regions by the 
Government of Cameroon security forces and armed 
groups, including extrajudicial killings and deten-
tions, the use of force against nonviolent civilians 
and protestors, and violations of the freedoms of 
press, expression, and assembly; 
(2) reaffirms that the United States has held 
and continues to hold the Government of Cameroon 
responsible for upholding the rights of all citizens, 
regardless of political views or beliefs or the regions 
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in which they reside, in accordance with Cameroon’s 
international obligations and Cameroon’s own Con-
stitution; 
(3) reiterates its call to all parties, including 
political opposition groups, to immediately exercise 
restraint and to ensure that protests remain peace-
ful; 
(4) continues to urge the Government of Cam-
eroon to— 
(A) initiate broad-based dialogue without 
preconditions and make a credible, full-faith ef-
fort to work with religious and community lead-
ers in the Anglophone regions to address griev-
ances and seek nonviolent solutions to resolve 
conflict and constitutional reforms that would 
protect minority concerns, such as reconsti-
tuting a Federal system; 
(B) follow through on the initiatives devel-
oped to address grievances, including the Com-
mission of Bilingualism and Multiculturalism, 
the Ministry of Decentralization, and the Na-
tional Commission for Disarmament, Demobili-
zation, Reintegration, that currently offer no 
visible evidence of having played a constructive 
role in resolving the crisis; 
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(C) respect the fundamental rights of all 
activists and journalists; 
(D) ensure that any security operations 
are conducted in accordance with international 
human rights standards, including efforts to en-
sure security forces only use force under appro-
priate circumstances; 
(E) transparently investigate all allegations 
of human rights violations committed in the 
Anglophone regions and take the necessary 
measures to prevent arbitrary detention, tor-
ture, enforced disappearances, deaths in cus-
tody, and inhumane prison conditions; 
(F) promptly charge or release all those 
detained in the context of the Anglophone crisis 
and ensure that any future detainees are treat-
ed with due process, in accordance with Cam-
eroon’s penal code; 
(G) allow unfettered access to humani-
tarian and health care workers in accordance 
with humanitarian principles of humanity, neu-
trality, impartiality, and independence; 
(H) release the leaders and members of the 
Cameroon Renaissance Movement party who 
were arrested following their peaceful protests, 
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and ensure that this party, like others, can par-
ticipate unfettered in future elections; 
(I) release human rights defenders, civil 
society activists, political prisoners, journalists, 
trade unionists, teachers, and any other citizens 
who have been arbitrarily arrested and detained 
without trial or charge; 
(J) ensure that detainees are treated fairly 
and humanely, with proper judicial proceedings, 
including a registry of those detained by the 
Cameroonian security forces, and with full ac-
cess to legal and medical resources; and 
(K) ensure that Cameroon’s antiterrorism 
legislation is used only to prosecute offenses 
that would be considered acts of terrorism 
under international legal standards, and cease 
to use this legislation to sanction activities that 
are protected by national and international 
guarantees of freedom of expression, peaceful 
assembly, and association with others; 
(5) urges the separatist groups to— 
(A) engage with Cameroonian Government 
officials, as well as civil society and religious 
leaders, in a broad-based dialogue without pre-
conditions to peacefully express grievances and 
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credibly engage in nonviolent efforts to resolve 
the conflict; 
(B) immediately stop committing human 
rights abuses, including killings of civilians, use 
of child soldiers, torture, kidnapping, and extor-
tion, and to hold those responsible for such ac-
tions accountable; 
(C) end the school boycott immediately and 
cease attacks on schools, teachers, and edu-
cation officials, and allow for the safe return of 
all students to class; 
(D) end incitement to violence and hate 
speech on the part of the diaspora; and 
(E) immediately release all civilians ille-
gally detained or kidnapped in the Anglophone 
Northwest and Southwest regions; and 
(6) urges the Secretary of State to hold individ-
uals accountable for gross violations of internation-
ally recognized human rights and for perpetuating 
the conflict in the Northwest and Southwest regions 
of Cameroon. 
Æ 
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