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Amnesty International Report 2017/18

protection for victims. Women continued to 

be under-represented in politics. Although 

the number of women commune chiefs 

elected during the 2017 commune elections 

increased, the total number of women 

councillors decreased.

RIGHT TO HOUSING AND FORCED 

EVICTIONS

Land grabbing, land concessions granted to 

private stakeholders for agri-industrial use, 

and major development projects continued to 

impact the right to adequate housing for 

communities around the country. A report 

released in January by the Land 

Management Ministry showed an increase in 

land dispute complaints received in 2016 

compared to the previous year. Work on the 

Lower Sesan II hydropower dam in the 

northeast province of Stung Treng 

progressed; Indigenous people who refused 

to leave their ancestral lands faced forcible 

relocation. Those who accepted relocation 

were moved to substandard and flooding-

affected resettlement sites.

REFUGEES AND ASYLUM-SEEKERS

The government rejected 29 applications for 

refugee status by Montagnard asylum-

seekers from Viet Nam, who faced possible 

refoulement. UNHCR, the UN refugee 

agency, stated that they had legitimate 

grounds. They remained in Cambodia at the 

end of the year.

INTERNATIONAL JUSTICE

In February, the Co-Investigating Judges 

issued a joint closing order dismissing the 

case against Im Chaem in Case 004/1 at the 

Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of 

Cambodia (ECCC). She was found not to fall 

within the ECCC’s personal jurisdiction of 

being a senior leader or one of the most 

responsible officials during the Khmer Rouge 

regime.

In June, closing statements were made in a 

second trial of Nuon Chea and Khieu 

Samphan in Case 002. The case against 

them had been severed by the Trial Chamber 

of the ECCC in 2011, resulting in two trials on 

different charges. They faced charges of 

crimes against humanity, genocide and grave 

breaches of the Geneva Conventions.

1. Cambodia: Courts of injustice − suppressing activism through the 

criminal justice system (

ASA 23/6059/2017

)

CAMEROON

Republic of Cameroon

Head of state: Paul Biya

Head of government: Philémon Yang

The armed group Boko Haram continued to 

commit serious human rights abuses and 

violations of international humanitarian law 

in the Far North region, including looting 

and destroying properties and killing and 

abducting civilians. In response, the 

authorities and security forces committed 

human rights violations and crimes under 

international law, including arbitrary arrests, 

incommunicado detentions, torture and 

deaths in custody. As a result of the 

conflict, around 240,000 people in the Far 

North region had fled their homes between 

2014 and the end of 2017. Freedoms of 

expression, association and peaceful 

assembly continued to be restricted 

throughout the country. Security forces 

violently repressed demonstrations in 

Anglophone regions in January and 

September. Civil society activists, 

journalists, trade unionists and teachers 

were arrested and some faced trial before 

military courts.

ABUSES BY ARMED GROUPS

The armed group Boko Haram committed 

crimes under international law and human 

rights abuses, including suicide bombings in 

civilian areas, summary executions, 

abductions, recruitment of child soldiers, and 

looting and destruction of public and private 

property. During the year, the group carried 

out at least 150 attacks, including 48 suicide 

bombings, killing at least 250 civilians. The 

crimes were part of a widespread and 

systematic attack on the civilian population 

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113

across the Lake Chad basin. Boko Haram 

deliberately targeted civilians in attacks on 

markets, mosques, commercial areas and 

other public places. On 12 July a female 

suicide bomber detonated explosives in a 

crowded video-game shop in the town of 

Waza, killing at least 16 civilians and injuring 

more than 30. On 5 August, a suicide 

bomber in the village of Ouro Kessoum, near 

Amchide, killed eight children and injured 

four more.

TORTURE AND OTHER ILL-TREATMENT

Security forces continued to arbitrarily arrest 

individuals accused of supporting Boko 

Haram, often with little or no evidence and 

sometimes using unnecessary or excessive 

force. Those arrested were frequently 

detained in inhumane, life-threatening 

conditions. At least 101 people were detained 

incommunicado between March 2013 and 

March 2017 in a series of military bases run 

by the Rapid Intervention Battalion (BIR) and 

facilities run by the intelligence agency. They 

were subjected to torture and other ill-

treatment.

1

 These routine and systematic 

practices continued throughout 2017, 

although at least 20 people were reported to 

have been transferred from the BIR military 

base in Salak to the central prison in Maroua 

in late August.

It was highly likely that senior military 

officers based in Salak were aware of the 

torture, but they did nothing to prevent it. US 

military personnel also had a regular 

presence at the BIR’s base at Salak and an 

investigation was launched into their possible 

knowledge of human rights violations at the 

base; its outcomes were not published during 

the year.

No investigations were known to have been 

conducted by the Cameroonian authorities 

into the allegations of incommunicado 

detention, torture and other ill-treatment, nor 

efforts made to prevent such occurrences or 

to prosecute and punish the perpetrators.

In December the UN Committee against 

Torture expressed deep concern about the 

use of torture and incommunicado detention, 

and criticized the failure by Cameroonian 

authorities to clarify whether investigations 

were being carried out.

FREEDOMS OF EXPRESSION, 

ASSOCIATION AND ASSEMBLY

Human rights defenders, including civil 

society activists, journalists, trade unionists, 

lawyers and teachers continued to be 

intimidated, harassed and threatened.

On 17 January, following protests in the 

English-speaking regions of the country, the 

Minister of Territorial Administration banned 

the activities of the political party Southern 

Cameroons National Council (SCNC) and the 

Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society 

Consortium (CACSC).

2

 The same day, the 

president of the CACSC, barrister Nkongho 

Felix Agbor-Balla, and its Secretary General, 

Dr Fontem Aforteka’a Neba, were arrested 

after signing a statement calling for non-

violent protests. Held incommunicado at the 

State Defence Secretariat, they were charged 

under the 2014 anti-terrorism law, without 

any basis. They were transferred to the 

Prison Principale in the capital, Yaoundé, 

before eventually being released following a 

presidential decision on 30 August, along 

with 53 other Anglophone protesters who had 

been arrested between late October 2016 

and February 2017.

Between January and April, and in early 

October, telephone and internet services 

were cut in the English-speaking regions, 

with no official explanation.

On 24 May, authorities shut down an 

Amnesty International press conference 

scheduled to take place in Yaoundé. Amnesty 

International staff had planned to present 

more than 310,000 letters and petitions 

asking President Biya to release three 

students imprisoned for 10 years for sharing 

a joke by text message about Boko Haram. 

No written administrative justification was 

provided for the prohibition of the press 

conference.

More than 20 protesters were shot by 

security forces in the Anglophone regions 

between 1 and 2 October, and more than 

500 arrested. Others wounded in the protests 

were forced to flee hospitals where they 

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