This is the village of Kuke Mbomo, 
in Cameroon, being burnt to the ground.
For months now, images like these have been
pouring out of Cameroon on social media.
Some show burning villages. Others
record acts of torture and killing.
Many are too graphic to show.
Taken together, these films show a country
sliding into civil war as the government tries
to suppress an armed insurgency.
So what’s going on?
Africa Eye has analysed some of these videos, 
checked them against satellite imagery
and spoken with eyewitnesses on the ground.
For the first time, we show you who is
committing these atrocities - and why.
This is a conflict that has 
been building for decades.
At its root is a division between Cameroon’s French-speaking majority and it's English-speaking minority
concentrated in the west of the country.
After Cameroon gained independence in 1960,
the two parts of the country formed a single nation.
Even then, some English-speakers felt they
had been forced into the new republic.
Ever since, Anglophones have complained that their
regions are neglected and excluded from power.
The current conflict began in 2016, when lawyers, students, and teachers took to the streets to protest.
Activists were arrested, and several
protesters were shot by security forces.
The crackdown intensified Anglophone
resentment, fuelling demands for secession
and transforming this into an
increasingly violent rebellion.
By late 2017, separatists were symbolically
proclaiming the independence of a new state
that they call “Ambazonia.”
Since then, there have been reports of atrocities
on all sides - kidnappings, extra-judicial killings,
and burnings of villages.
This is one of those villages, seen in a
video recorded in April this year.
The film shows a unit of at least 13 
soldiers setting fire to a house.
The location can be confirmed by matching
buildings to satellite imagery, as well as
by fire damage in this subsequent
video from the same village.
These men appear to be government troops.
The fatigues, the helmets, and the black webbing
are all consistent with those worn by
Cameroon’s Rapid Intervention Battalion (BIR),
an elite army unit that has been
trained by US and Israeli forces.
Here they are again in a 2016 video, seen
with the distinctive BIR on their webbing.
A local resident told the BBC that the troops who 
destroyed houses in Azi belonged to the BIR.
But a government minister said that the
identity of the men in this video is unclear.
A few days later, in early May, this video
was posted to Facebook.
We’ve examined the footage frame by frame, and confirmed that this was filmed in the village
of Kuke Mbomo.
This satellite image is from April 16th, 2018.
Lower resolution imagery from after the
raid clearly shows that by May 22nd,
many of these buildings have been destroyed.
Amateur footage also captured an attack on
the village of Munyenge on April 29th.
This video shows the town centre ablaze and
reveals this distinctive landmark,
which can be seen again in a video
of the aftermath posted on May 4th.
Satellite imagery from before and after this
attack shows the extent of the destruction.
The BBC has spoken with three residents of
Munyenge who all say that the village was
destroyed by government forces.
These are not isolated incidents.
Analysis of satellite imagery shows extensive
fire damage in villages across the South-West region.
Kwakwa.
Bole.
Kumukumu.
Bekora.
We cannot confirm who was responsible
for torching these villages,
but lawyer and activist, Agbor Nkongho,
blames government forces.
The government denies this.
Government forces have also been accused
of unlawful killings and torture.
This video, recorded in May 2018, appears
to show Cameroonian gendarmes
torturing a separatist commander.
The full video is too graphic to show, but
the men inflicting this beating are repeating
the phrase “You’ve killed gendarmes, no?”
Our analysis of the video places it
outside the National Gendarmerie
in the village of Nkongle.
The government told us that they
are investigating this incident.
It’s not just the government
committing these abuses.
Separatist rebels have also killed Cameroonian
security forces and attacked civilians accused
of working with the government.
Cameroonian authorities say that 81 members 
of the security forces and more than 100 civilians
have been killed by separatists in the past year.
The rebels have also attacked and burnt down schools.
This teacher was shot for keeping his school open.
This new video shows a village chief being
beaten, apparently, by a rebel militia.
His tormentors are threatening to kill him if the
government doesn’t respond within 24 hours.
Thousands of families have been forced
from their homes by the fighting.
21,000 people have fled across the border into Nigeria.
The UN estimates that a further 160,000
are displaced within Cameroon.
Many, like the people shown in this video,
are still hiding in the forest.
