Separatist leaders face capital punishment charges

Ten Cameroonian separatist leaders who were extradited from Nigeria this year will face trial this month on terrorism charges that could lead to the death penalty. BBC News reports that they include Sisuku Julius Ayuk Tabe, the leader of an Anglophone separatist movement in western Cameroon fighting to break away from the Francophone-dominated central government. 'Ten charges have been brought against them, including terrorism, advocating terrorism, secession, civil war and revolution,' lawyer Christopher Ndong said after the charges were read out at the capital Yaounde’s Military Court. The secessionist movement took up arms last year to demand independence for the North-West and South-West regions – the two English-speaking regions in a country where French is the most widely spoken official language.