Cameroon Jails Secessionists After Extradition by Nigeria - No Pictorial Proof So Far!

Cameroon will try the leaders of a secessionist movement after Nigerian authorities extradited them ton the central African nation.

The 11 leaders of the movement, including the self-proclaimed president of Cameroon’s two English-speaking regions, are being held in a prison in the capital, Yaounde, after Nigeria put them on a plane to the country on Jan. 26, Communications Minister Issa Tchiroma Bakary told reporters Monday. While there is no extradition treaty between the two neighbors, the Cameroonian government has issued an international arrest warrant that justifies the move, he said.

Cameroon Jails Secessionists After Extradition by Nigeria - No Pictorial Proof So Far!

“The secessionists who are sponsoring criminal attacks and violence across the northwest and southwest regions were arrested in Calabar and Abuja and taken to Abuja, where they were detained,” Tchiroma told reporters. Nigeria’s move “goes a long way to demonstrate the excellent relations enjoyed by the brotherly and neighboring countries,” he said.

The men, whom the government labels terrorists, had been held at an undisclosed location in Nigeria since Jan. 6.

Violence in Cameroon’s Anglophone regions has intensified amid a government crackdown on supporters of the secessionists, who call their area the Republic of Ambazonia. The unrest began more than a year ago with peaceful protests against the French language’s dominance in courtrooms and schools. The English-speaking minority, about a fifth of the population, has complained of marginalization for decades.