Bericht von Amnesty International, 20.7.2017 (engl. Originalfassung)
Since 2014, the armed group Boko Haram has killed over 1,500 civilians in the Far North region of Cameroon, through a series of brutal and often indiscriminate attacks, in addition to its kidnapping of women and girls and its widespread looting and destruction of property. Amnesty International believes that Boko Haram has been engaged in a non-international armed conflict with the Cameroonian security forces since at least 2014.
Faced with such atrocities, Amnesty International believes that the Government of Cameroon has the right and duty to protect civilians from attack, yet must also respect the human rights of the population – and Cameroon’s obligations under national and international law – in doing so.
Reports published by Amnesty International in 2015 and 2016 highlighted how Cameroon’s authorities and security forces often failed to respect these obligations, committing human rights violations and crimes under international law on a significant scale, including with arbitrary arrests, incommunicado detention, enforced disappearances, torture and deaths in custody.
This report delves deeper, documenting the cases of 101 individuals who, between March 2013 and March 2017, were held incommunicado, tortured, and sometimes killed by Cameroonian security forces in facilities run by the military and intelligence services. Despite such practices being in violation of both national and international law, the use of torture in Cameroon’s fight against Boko Haram has become widespread and routine, and practiced with impunity. These constitute violations of international human rights law, as well as violations of international humanitarian law that amount to war crimes.
In all the cases investigated, victims of torture were individuals who had been accused – often with little or no evidence – of supporting Boko Haram. The majority were Cameroonian men aged 18 to 45 years old from the Far North region, with the Kanuri being the ethnic group most commonly targeted, but victims also included women, minors and people with physical and mental disabilities. In most cases, individuals were arrested either by soldiers from the regular Army, its elite Rapid Intervention Battalion (Bataillon d’Intervention Rapide, BIR), or by unidentified men in civilian clothes – always without a warrant, and rarely providing a reason for the arrest.
Amnesty International calls for action to be taken by Cameroon’s international partners, ensuring that human rights violations and crimes under international law including torture and incommunicado detention are prioritized in discussions with Cameroonian authorities, and that any military co-operation with Cameroon, including training or technical advice, does not contribute to the perpetration of human rights violations. This is especially the case for countries including France and the USA who have provided military assistance to Cameroon’s fight against Boko Haram, and who may have military personnel present on sites where torture is carried out.
Den vollständigen Bericht finden Sie hier.