President Trump said he will soon ax Cameroon from a trade program that allows African countries to sell goods to the United States on a duty-free basis, citing “persistent human rights violations”...The decision comes as U.S. officials accuse the Central African nation of extrajudicial killings and unlawful detentions amid conflicts that have displaced more than a half-million people over the past two years. “Despite intensive engagement between the United States and the Government of Cameroon, Cameroon has failed to address concerns regarding persistent human rights violations being committed by Cameroonian security forces,” Trump said...Cameroonian officials did not respond to requests for comment.

Allegations of human rights abuses center on the country’s Anglophone crisis, which began in 2016 with protests in English-speaking areas over the use of French in schools and courts. (About 80 percent of Cameroon speaks French.) That trouble has evolved into a full-blown conflict between armed Anglophone separatist groups and government forces. Both sides have been accused of violent crimes...

The Cameroonian government has jailed activists without charge and failed to punish soldiers who crackdown on dissent with torture and indiscriminate killing...A video analysis from Amnesty International last summer appeared to show Cameroonian troops executing unarmed people, including children, in the country’s north...

Slashing access to the world’s biggest market is meant to send President Paul Biya “a strong disapproving message,” said Jeffrey Smith, executive director of Vanguard Africa, an ethical-leadership nonprofit organization. Cameroon...exported $220 million in goods to the United States last year, including mineral fuel, wood, rubber, and cocoa, according to American trade data.