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sought life-saving treatment out of fear of
arrest. In addition, dozens of members of the
security forces, including soldiers and
gendarmes, were killed in attacks perpetrated
by Anglophone insurgents in the South and
North West regions during the year.
UNFAIR TRIALS
Unfair trials continued before military courts,
which were often marred by irregularities.
On 10 April, Radio France Internationale
correspondent Ahmed Abba was sentenced
to 10 years’ imprisonment, convicted by the
Yaoundé Military Court of “complicity with
and non-denunciation of terrorist acts”. The
trial was marred by irregularities, including
documents not being disclosed to defence
lawyers. Ahmed Abba had been arrested in
Maroua in July 2015 and was tortured while
held incommunicado for three months at a
facility run by the General Directorate of
External Research. On 21 December the
Appeal Court of the Yaoundé Military Court
ordered his initial sentence to be reduced to
24 months, which he had already served.
The Court upheld the charge of “non-
denunciation of terrorism”.
The appeal of Fomusoh Ivo Feh, who was
arrested in December 2014 for forwarding a
sarcastic text message about Boko Haram
and sentenced to 10 years in prison, had not
begun at the end of the year. Scheduled to
begin in December 2016, his hearings had
been adjourned at least seven times.
On 30 October, journalists Rodrigue Tongué,
Felix Ebole Bola and Baba Wamé were
acquitted by the Yaoundé Military Court,
having been initially charged in October 2014
with “non-denunciation of information and
sources”. Facing trial alongside the
journalists were opposition party leader
Aboubakary Siddiki, and Abdoulaye
Harissou, a well-known notary detained since
August 2014. The Yaoundé Military Court
sentenced Aboubakary Siddiki to 25 years’
imprisonment on charges including hostility
against the homeland, revolution, and
contempt of the President. Abdoulaye
Harissou was sentenced to three years’
imprisonment, and subsequently released
having already served this sentence. Their
trial was marred by irregularities. During their
initial period of detention, the two men had
been held incommunicado for more than 40
days in an illegal facility run by the General
Directorate of External Relations and
subjected to torture.
DETENTION
Prison conditions remained poor, marked by
chronic overcrowding, inadequate food,
limited medical care, and deplorable hygiene
and sanitation. Maroua prison housed around
1,500 detainees, more than four times its
intended capacity. The population of the
central prison in Yaoundé was approximately
4,400, despite a maximum capacity of 1,500.
The main factors contributing to
overcrowding included the mass arrests since
2014 of people accused of supporting Boko
Haram, the large number of detainees held
without charge, and the ineffective judicial
system. The government finalized the
construction of at least 10 new cells for the
prison in Maroua.
REFUGEES AND ASYLUM-SEEKERS
At least 250,000 refugees from the Central
African Republic lived in harsh conditions in
crowded camps or with host families along
border areas of southeastern Cameroon.
Some 60,000 refugees from Nigeria lived in
the UN-run Minawao camp in the Far North
region; around 30,000 others struggled to
cope outside the camp, facing food
insecurity, lack of access to basic services,
harassment by the security forces and the
risk of refoulement as they were perceived to
be supporters of Boko Haram.
On 2 March, Cameroon, Nigeria and
UNHCR, the UN refugee agency, signed a
“Tripartite Agreement for the Voluntary
Repatriation of Nigerian Refugees Living in
Cameroon”. However, between January and
September, Cameroon forcibly returned at
least 4,400 Nigerians. These forced returns
were part of a larger deportation operation
carried out by Cameroon. Human Rights
Watch estimated that, since 2015,
Cameroonian authorities and security forces
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115
had summarily deported more than 100,000
Nigerians living in areas located along the
Cameroon-Nigeria border, often with
unnecessary and excessive use of force.
Some of those forcibly returned, including
children, weakened by living for months or
years with limited or no access to food and
health care, died during the deportations.
In December, UNHCR reported having
registered more than 5,000 Cameroonians,
mainly women and children, who had fled
the Anglophone areas of Cameroon to
Nigeria.
RIGHT TO AN ADEQUATE STANDARD
OF LIVING
The conflict with Boko Haram led to the
internal displacement of around 240,000
people in the Far North region and
exacerbated the hardships experienced by
communities, limiting their access to basic
social services, and disrupting trade, farming
and pastoralism. In December, almost 3.3
million people, of whom 61% were in the Far
North region, were in need of humanitarian
assistance, including food and medical care.
Humanitarian access continued to be
restricted by the ongoing conflict.
RIGHT TO EDUCATION
Dozens of schools were closed in the English-
speaking regions between November 2016
and September 2017, following strikes and
boycotts called for by trade unions and
members of civil society. Extreme elements
within Anglophone pro-secession groups
carried out attacks on education facilities that
“breached the boycott”.
Between January and September 2017,
more than 30 schools were burned and
severely damaged. In the Far North region,
139 primary schools in the departments of
Logone and Chari, Mayo Sava and Mayo
Tsanaga remained closed because of
insecurity and at least eight were occupied by
security forces, affecting almost 40,000
children.
DEATH PENALTY
People accused of supporting Boko Haram
continued to be sentenced to death following
unfair trials in military courts; none were
executed during the year. The cases were all
prosecuted under the deeply flawed 2014
anti-terrorism law.
1. Cameroon’s secret torture chambers: Human rights violations and
war crimes in the fight against Boko Haram (
AFR 17/6536/2017
)
2. Cameroon: Arrests and civil society bans risk inflaming tensions in
English-speaking regions (
Press release
, 20 January)
CANADA
Canada
Head of state: Queen Elizabeth II, represented by Julie
Payette (replaced David Johnston in October)
Head of government: Justin Trudeau
Discrimination against Indigenous Peoples
continued, in particular the failure to
protect their rights to lands and resources.
Urgent measures were required to ensure
the safety of Indigenous women and girls
while a national inquiry was under way.
There was a substantial increase in
numbers of asylum-seekers crossing the
border from the USA irregularly.
INDIGENOUS PEOPLES’ RIGHTS
Government commitments to respect and
protect the rights of Indigenous Peoples were
contradicted by the failure to address
violations of treaty-protected Indigenous
hunting and fishing rights by the planned
flooding of the Peace River Valley in the
province of British Columbia for the Site C
dam.
The Canadian Human Rights Tribunal
issued three non-compliance orders against
the federal government for discrimination in
services for First Nations children and
families.
The Public Inquiry Commission on Relations
between Indigenous Peoples and Certain
Public Services in Québec held hearings
throughout the year.