Scores Dead in Cameroon Violence: Daily Brief

Fresh fears for Cameroon amid surge in killings; Kenyan government should not close Dadaab refugee camp; Kazakhstan's strongman resigns but still holds power; growing calls for Bahrain to free Najah Yusuf ahead of Formula 1 Grand Prix this weekend; Tunisian police assaulted protestor; another Palestinian medic is shot dead; Turkish nationals go missing in China's Xinjiang region; and Burundi's 'scribbling' schoolgirls are freed following outcry. 

Get the Daily Brief by email.

Government forces in Cameroon’s Anglophone regions have killed at least 170 civilians, used indiscriminate force, and torched hundreds of homes over the past six months, Human Rights Watch said in new research released today. Armed separatists have also assaulted and kidnapped dozens of people during the same period, executing at least two men, amid intensifying violence. 

The Kenyan government should abandon a renewed push to close the enormous Dadaab refugee camp, a move which threatens the safety of 250,000 people, mostly Somali refugees and asylum seekers. 

Nursultan Nazarbayev, Kazakhstan’s strongman leader, may have finally resigned after a 30-year rule, but he clearly plans to keep pulling strings from behind the scenes. 

Human rights groups have called on Formula One and its governing body, the FIA, to seek the immediate release of a jailed female activist, Najah Yusuf, ahead of this weekend's Bahrain Grand Prix. Yusuf, a mother of four serving a three-year sentence for criticising the 2017 Bahrain Grand Prix on social media, has written from her prison cell detailing her mistreatment and sexual abuse in custody.

Tunisian authorities should investigate allegations that police beat and sexually assaulted a protester while breaking up a sit in in Tunis earlier this month. 

A Palestinian volunteer medic was reportedly killed by Israeli forces during clashes in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday, the Palestinian health ministry has said. Reports suggest the 17-year-old may have been shot in the stomach while trying to treat one of those wounded in clashes in the area. 

Turkey is one of the few Muslim-majority countries to call out China’s crackdown on Uighur Muslims. But new reports suggest that several Turkish nationals - including children - have also disappeared, something that has never been publicly acknowledged by Turkey.

And finally some good news to report: three Burundi schoolgirls who were detained for drawing on a photo of President Pierre Nkurunziza in their schoolbooks have been freed following an international outcry. The trio had faced up to five years in jail if they were convicted of "insulting the head of state".

Region / Country