Cameroon Soldiers Attack World UNESCO Site

Troops from the Rapid Intervention Battalion (BIR), an elite military force of the Cameroon army, have attacked the Royal Palace in Bafut, in the north west of the country, in search of Anglophone separatists.  

According to witnesses, ten troops stormed the palace, home to the Fon and his family.  The raid occurred during a traditional ceremony involving around 200 people.  The Fon is a King that presides over the local authority.

The Fon’s brother was allegedly shot and wounded by the soldiers, before the palace museum was looted for precious artefacts.  They are suspected to have taken a number of items, including gold necklaces and a bronze mask dating back to the 18th century.

Human Rights Watch have condemned the military operation, which lasted around three hours.

The Royal Palace in Bafut has been listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2006, bestowing it a place of cultural significance and affording it extra rights incumbent upon the government to provide.

The palace is located at the centre of a simmering ethnic crisis in Cameroon, as tensions rise between the Anglophone and Francophone regions.

Cameroon, a former French colony and majority Francophone country, is home to around 17 million English-speaking peoples, a large portion of which would like to break away and form their own state.

The BIR plays a leading role in the fight against both Anglophone separatists and the Islamic military group Boko Haram.

The unit is equipped and trained primarily by the United States and Israeli Defence Force, although it has long been plagued by accusations of human rights abuses.  Every year since 2010 the US State Department has issued reports detailing torture and extra-judicial killings conducted by the unit.