A Cameroonian separatist leader has been arrested in Norway on suspicion of involvement in the ongoing armed conflict in the Central African country.
Lucas Ayaba Cho was arrested on Tuesday on charges “based on his behavior on social media,” his lawyer told the BBC accusations of various statements in the media”.
Cho is an influential figure in the anglophone movement pushing for independence in Cameroon, where more than 6,000 people have been killed and nearly a million displaced since fighting began in 2016.
Some people in the country’s two English-speaking regions say they face discrimination from the French-speaking majority.
Rights group Amnesty International accused government forces and armed separatists of killing, raping and torturing civilians.
A Cameroonian official told the BBC that Norway and Cameroon had reached a security agreement and Zhao’s extradition was likely in the coming days.
His lawyer said he was unaware of any extradition request.
Cao is a self-proclaimed liberation leader and one of the most prominent separatist leaders influencing Cameroon’s volatile Anglophone regional conflict.
On his website, the 52-year-old is described as the commander-in-chief of the Ambazonia Defense Forces (ADF), one of several armed groups seeking independence from Cameroon.
He directs operations from a base in Norway, where he is believed to have recently ordered a two-week lockdown as part of a separatist boycott of schools.
He is known for his tough rhetoric and tough attitudes, and recently ADF combatants targeted taxi drivers in the North West, ordering them to change the color of their vehicles from yellow to white and blue – the colors of taxis , so he was criticized. Some who refused saw their vehicles burned.
The Governing Council of Ambazonia, the political wing of the ADF, imposed a “liberation tax” that forced people living in the restive anglophone region to pay a certain amount of money to finance the conflict with the government.
In January 2017, he said he survived an assassination attempt after holding talks with other Belgian separatist leaders.
His anti-institutional radicalism did not emerge with the outbreak of the Anglophone crisis in 2016.
Norway’s National Criminal Investigation Service (KRIPOS) said Cao “played a central role in the ongoing armed conflict in Cameroon”.
On Wednesday, Norwegian investigators approached the Oslo District Court seeking his detention.
“We are in the early stages of the investigation and there are still several investigative steps that have not yet been completed,” Norwegian prosecutor Annette Berger said.
Emmanuel Nsahlai, an American lawyer representing some of the victims of Cameroon’s Anglophone crisis, hailed Cao’s arrest as a “major victory” for Cameroon against separatist violence.
“This arrest marks a crucial step towards holding him accountable for his actions and bringing justice to the victims of his violence,” Nsale told the BBC.
Cao is not the first separatist leader to be arrested abroad in connection with the violence in Cameroon.
Since the conflict began, Cameroon’s government has urged foreign countries hosting separatist leaders to help repatriate them to face trial for their role in the ongoing violence.
In 2018, Anglophone separatist leader Julius Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and 46 others were arrested in Nigeria and later extradited to Cameroon.
