Social media footage of the French President telling a Cameroon activist that he’s pressured Biya into releasing a jailed opposition parliament and  ending human rights abuses has gone viral.

French President Emmanuel Macron was filmed after 22 people were killed  in the English-speaking north-west of Cameroon  by men in military uniform.

Macron speaks on the film of intolerable human rights violations in Cameroon and says he’ll press President Paul Biya  to ensure there are no further killings.

The protesting youths say Macron should have respect for his elder and not make Biya look like his stooge.

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No-one has claimed responsibility, but opponents of President Paul Biya are blaming the army.

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James Nunan of  the United Nations Humanitarian Coordination Agency says a pregnant woman and 14 children, nine of them under five years old, are among those killed.

President Paul  Biya has been battling English-speaking separatists in the northwest and southwest of Cameroon.

Three years of fighting have left more than 3000 dead and displaced 70 000. 

His security forces are accused of atrocities and human rights violations.

This has

 led Washington to axe Cameroon from the list of African countries on a special favoured trading  status programme.

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They say the continental body has a responsibility to debate the worsening crisis in the Central African country which now has the sixth largest displaced population in the world.

The Pan African Parliament has been eerily silent on Cameroon where at least 1800 people have been ordered and half a million people displaced by a crackdown on the English-speaking minority in the west of the country.

That because the PAP President Roger Nkoda Dang is a member of President Paul Biya’s ruling  party.

Felix Nkongho of the Centre for Human Rights and Democracy in Africa and Maximilienne Mbe of the Network of Central African Human Rights Defenders have arrived to be heard by the PAP committee currently in session.

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More than 350 of them have been arrested while demonstrating for the release of opposition leader Maurice Kamto.

Octogenarian President Paul Biya has his hands full dealing with the disaffected Anglophone majority in his country.

Last week his police killed a four-month-old baby among protestors in the English-speaking west of Cameroon.

Now the police have turned on Francophone opponents of Biya, who has been in power for 35 years.

Maurice Kamto and scores of his supporters were arrested after he claimed victory in last October’s presidential election.

Those supporters are defying police, and risking death and injury, by taking to the streets of the capital Yaoundè demanding his release.

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One persons died in the attack.

The separatists are calling for the release of their leader who’s jailed and facing the death penalty.

The Anglophone Cameroonians, who make up a fifth of the country’s 17-million population, say they want a separate state in the south west of the nation  they say has marginalized them

The authorities under President Paul Biya have dealt harshly with any acts of rebellion.

At the time of the attack on the Francophone town, the Centre for Human Rights and Democracy in Africa has condemned the killing of Anglophone protestors by security forces in Cameroon

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The schools headmaster, teacher and and a driver were taken along with the children.

The army is scouring the north west of Cameroon as anxious parents wait for news of their children.

A group calling themselves the Amba Boys, who broke into the Presbyterian school in the regional capital Bamenda to perform their kidnapping, say they’ll hold their hostages until the Anglophone areas of Cameroon are allowed to form an independent state called Ambazonia.

The Anglophone separatists maintain they are being marginalized and dominated by the Francophone majority.

Their battle for independence has become increasingly militant these past two years. 

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The abduction comes on the eve of President Paul Biya being sworn into office for a seven term.

The kidnappers says they’ll hold their hostages until the Anglophone areas of Cameroon are allowed to split and form an independent  state  called Ambazonia.

They’re mostly pupils but the school’s headmaster has also been taken

The kidnappers  call themselves the Amba boys and they’ve  released a video of their victims taken from a Presbyterian school near the district capital Bamenda.

The secessionists have used kidnapping  before in their quest for independence for the Anglophone Cameroonians who make-up 20 percent of the country’s 24-million population.

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Three people died when police fired on protestors in the  Anglophone northwest  of the country.

Cameroon’s 85-year-old President Paul Biya is a racing certainty to beat off his eight challengers and win a seventh term at the helm.

It will make the man who has already been in power for 36 years Africa’s second-longest-serving president.

Anglophone areas of the country boycotted the poll. They claim they have been marginalised and  seeking to break with the French-speaking majority to form an independent state.

Authorities have responded violently to their protests.

More than 400 people have died in clashes and 200 000 have fled to Francophone parts of the country or to neighboring  Nigeria. 

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There are fears the violence between English and French speakers in the central African country could impact on Sunday’s presidential election.

UN special advisor on the prevention of genocide Adama Deng says the probe into killings in Cameroon must cover both sides of the conflict to show no-one is above the law.

Anglophone Cameroonians, who make up a fifth of the 23-million population, feel marginalized and forced to be educated and do business in French.

A year ago they declared so-called independence to the anger of the government.

President Paul Biya, planning to extend his grip on the power  he has held for 36 years, has cracked down on the separatists.

More than 400 people have died in clashes and 200 000 have been displaced.

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They say soldiers manning checkpoints on their road to safety are like hungry lions on the loose.

The tougher action against Anglophone activists in Cameroon  – some of whom call for establishment of separate state  –  follows President Paul Biya declaring war on secessionists.

English speaking people make up less than a fifth of the more than 23-million Cameroonians.

Their grievances speak to marginalization and domination by  the French-speaking authorities.

The Kumba-Mamfwe road that carries trade between Cameroon and Nigeria is almost emptied by the unrest.

Anglophone residents in the northwest and southwest of Cameroon say they’re not prepared to risk their lives traveling along it.

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