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afrol News, 7 January - The M'bororo cattle herders of Cameroon's Northwest Province are said to victims of an "unscrupulous terror campaign" with the aim of robbing their extensive pasture lands. A rich and prominent rancher, allegedly supported by local government, is said to use any kind of methods to evict the M'bororo from their ancestral lands. According to the London-based group Survival International - aiming to "support tribal peoples" - the northern Cameroonian M'bororo herders are "suffering a campaign of terror master-minded by one unscrupulous individual using government agents and structures to dominate and rob them of their pasture land." The M'bororo people are known as the nomadic "cousins" of the Fulbe (Fulani) people, politically dominating northern Cameroon since the early 19th century. Arriving the region - together with their valuable cattle - in the 17th century, the M'bororo were left to graze the vast and empty pastures as they pleased. With colonial administration, however, the majority of this nomadic people was forced to settle in permanent villages. Since then, they hold traditional right to their pastures. While the northern parts of Cameroon were grossly under-populated and the land had little value in pre-colonial and colonial times, settlement has gradually encroached on the M'bororo's vast pastures. With more intensive agriculture and animal breeding, land conflicts have increased and the traditionally loosely organised M'bororo have emerged a weak party in these conflicts. - At present, four M'bororo men are in prison and face trial by a military tribunal on 9 January, Survival's press assistant, Sophie Thomas, said today. The Provincial President of the M'bororo Social and Cultural Development Association MBOSCUDA was also reported to be in prison. Ms Thomas says another man was "recovering from a near-fatal assault." This was "only the latest instalment in a long story of harassment, rapes, arbitrary imprisonment and assassination," the group claims. Behind these assault was a named Cameroonian multi-millionaire rancher and international businessman - with interests in South Africa, Europe and the USA - who is also a prominent member of Cameroon's ruling party. He is reported to already be the biggest landowner after the government in the Northwest Province, and had been "harassing the M'bororo for 16 years." According to information gathered by the group, one of the M'bororo men, Ousman Haman, had been arrested while filming a disputed piece of grazing land. Witnesses say Mr Ousman was taken to one of alleged perpetrator's ranches, where he was flogged as the ranch owner watched.
A member of MBOSCUDA wrote: "He has seized M'bororo grazing land. He has seized cattle, sheep, goats and horses. ... He kidnapped M'bororo girls, got married to them with force. He uses the gendarmes to arrest, detain and torture the M'bororo who show any resistance against him." Another M'bororo leader told Survival: "Everything in this matter is illegal and the Local Administration is behind him. He uses dirty money to corrupt all of them and they do just what he wishes. He has sworn that he is going to exterminate us." Cameroon's main opposition party has now filed a motion condemning this 'untouchable citizen', but the government has not taken action, according to Survival. The group has now protested to Present Biya of Cameroon. Also Amnesty International has earlier expressed its concern over the safety of M'bororo activists detained by the Cameroonian government.
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