April 25 (UPI) — The Department of Justice said Friday that a federal grand jury returned an indictment Thursday against a Maryland man on charges of conspiring to support armed separatist militias in Cameroon.
Cameroon national and Maryland resident Eric Tataw surrendered to custody and was scheduled to make his first court appearance Friday.
According to Matthew R. Galeotti, head of the DOJ’s Criminal Division, “The defendant is alleged to have ordered horrific acts of violence, including severing limbs, against Cameroonian civilians in support of a violent secessionist movement.”
The DOJ said in a statement that the violent armed groups are fighting to form a new nation called “Ambazonia” in the northwest and southwest regions of Cameroon.
U.S. Attorney Kelly O. Hayes for the District of Maryland said in a statement, “Tataw and his co-conspirators masterminded and financially supported a vicious scheme to overthrow a foreign government. They resorted to an unthinkable level of violence while instilling fear in innocent victims to advance their political agenda.”
The militia are known as “Amba Boys.”
Prosecutors allege that Tataw and others “sought to raise funds for the Amba Boys to finance violent attacks in Cameroon.”
They say Tataw allegedly also called “for the murder, kidnapping, and maiming of civilians and the destruction of public, educational, and cultural property in Cameroon.”
Prosecutors further allege Tataw directed maiming torture of Cameroon civilians by severing limbs. Tataw allegedly referred to himself as “Garri Master,” or master of mutilation.
Tataw faces up to 15 years in prison for conspiracy to provide material support to the militias and five years on each of four counts “of interstate communication of a threat to harm.”
