SUMMARY

On 17 February 1994 Cameroonian troops attack the village of Karena in northern Cameroon on the shores of Lake Chad took place. The soldiers from the 31st battalion were avenging the death of a soldier the day before by some highway robbers. In the incident was also a village chief killed and during a funeral ceremony for the chief, the village was surrounded by village chiefs. After this the soldiers started to fire indiscriminately at villagers and set fire to their homes. Residents in the area said that the security forces in total killed 55 villagers where 35 were children (aged between 40 days and seven years), 9 women and 11 men. Many of these victims were burned to death and there were also over 90 persons wounded. In addition to the killing large parts of the village were also burnt and after the attack on Karena most of the 3 000 villagers fled to a nearby area that has been occupied by Nigerian troops since 1989. Banditry and ethnic violence have been prevalent in the region and in an attempt to curb this; the Cameroon army in early January started a program with the codename “operation Scorpion”. In late 1993 and early 1994 fighting between the two Arab communities, Kotoko and Shua killed dozens of people in the area. The Karena village is populated by Shua (alternative spelling is Choa) Arabs and the Shua accuse the army of treating their tribesmen in a biased way. Despite the gravity of the incident no official inquiry was conducted and none of the responsible persons were suspended or brought to trial.

In addition to this Karena incident there was an incident in Nigeria close to the border to Cameroon. In this incident reportedly Cameroonian paramilitary police killed six persons in an attack against the Abana fishing village in Cross River State, Nigeria. In this incident the gendarmes threw a women’s baby child in the water after she had refused to give them the money they had demanded. In addition to these fourteen fishing ships were sunk during the raid.

The Government of Cameroon first became active as a one-sided actor in UCDP data in 1994, when the one-sided violence resulted in at least 25 civilian deaths. The threshold was reached on 17 February that year when troops attacked Karena town, killing 55 villagers.