Amnesty: Cameroon troops torture Boko Haram suspects to death

PanARMENIAN.Net - More than 1,000 people, many arrested arbitrarily, are being held in horrific conditions and dozens are dying from disease and malnutrition or have been tortured to death, as part of the Cameroonian government and security forces crackdown on Boko Haram, Amnesty International revealed in a new report published Thursday, July 14.

The over 1,000 people are accused of supporting Boko Haram.

The report Right cause, wrong means: Human rights violated and justice denied in Cameroon’s fight against Boko Haramdetails how the military offensive against Boko Haram has resulted in widespread human rights violations against civilians in the Far North region of the country.

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

“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.”

The findings come just weeks after a suicide attack by Boko Haram in Djakana, near Limani killed 11 people. This was the latest in an onslaught that has claimed 480 civilian lives this year. Approximately half of Boko Haram’s 46 suicide attacks have been carried out by children.

More than 1,000 people accused of supporting Boko Haram are currently detained in desperately overcrowded prisons, in insanitary conditions where malnutrition is rampant. In Maroua prison, for example, between six to eight people die each month. Despite some efforts to improve the water supply and begin the construction of new cells, conditions in the prison remain inhumane with nearly 1,500 people detained in a building built for 350. Family visits to detainees are strictly limited.