Report: Cameroon terrorizing suspected terrorists

Cameroon security forces are subjecting suspected Boko Haram fighters to torture, and many others are dying from malnutrition and diseases, Amnesty International said Thursday.

The report revealed more than 1,000 Boko Haram suspects, many arrested arbitrarily, faced unhealthy conditions in overcrowded prisons. In Cameroon’s Maura Prison, some eight people died each month. The security forces subjected others to torture and extrajudicial killings, the report said.

“In seeking to protect its population from the brutality of Boko Haram, Cameroon is pursuing the right objective,” said Alioune Tine, Amnesty’s West and Central Africa regional director. “But in arbitrarily arresting, torturing, and subjecting people to enforced disappearances, the authorities are using the wrong means.”

Boko Haram’s Islamist insurgency, which began in Nigeria, has spread to other neighboring countries, including Cameroon. The Central African country is one of five countries in the Lake Chad Basin that formed a joint task force to eradicate Boko Haram. Nearly 500 people in Cameroon have died this year from the group’s attacks. The violence has displaced some 170,000 Cameroonians.

Amnesty International said suspected militants often receive death sentences or other court judgments based on limited evidence such as anonymous informants who can’t be cross-examined. The advocacy group documented 20 torture cases, including those of six people who died. One 70-year-old man, identified only as “Malloum,” recounted his experience.

“That day, two prisoners were beaten up so badly that they died in front of us,” he said. “The men in plain clothes kicked them and slapped them violently, and hit them with wooden sticks.”

Cameroon’s officials denied the report and called it false and misleading. The rights group acknowledged that the country had made efforts to improve the water supply and build new cells for the detainees, but many of them still remained in bad conditions. In some cases, 1,500 people shared a cell meant for 350 people.

The group called on Cameroon’s government to prevent human rights violations in combating Boko Haram. It asked the authorities to work on ending arbitrary arrests and investigating human rights violations.

“With hundreds of people arrested without reasonable suspicion that they have committed any crime, and people dying on a weekly basis in its overcrowded prisons, Cameroon’s government should take urgent action to keep its promise to respect human rights while fighting Boko Haram,” Tine added.