The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Cameroon troops

  • Boko Haram:US investigating allegations of torture by Cameroon troops

    The U.S. military is probing allegations that Cameroonian troops carried out torture and murder at a base where American troops were present, a U.S. spokesman said yesterday.

    Amnesty International last month said it had documented 80 cases of abuse by Cameroonian troops at their Salak base in the country’s Far North region.

     Amnesty alleged the abuses were carried out between 2013 and 2017 against people suspected of involvement with Nigeria-based Boko Haram extremists.

    Amnesty said U.S. troops were present at several locations within the Salak base, headquarters of Cameroon’s Rapid Intervention Battalion.

    Col. Mark Cheadle, a spokesman for the U.S. Africa Command, said a “commander’s inquiry” had been launched to determine if any U.S. troops were aware of any of the alleged abuses.

    Cameroon’s government has criticized the Amnesty report.

    Most of the cases investigated by Amnesty International involved men of 18 to 45 years old, though the group documented the mistreatment of some women, children and people with mental and physical disabilities.

    “Detainees were severely beaten with various objects, including electric cables, machetes and wooden sticks,” suspended from poles and subjected to drowning, the report said, adding that many were deprived of food, water and medical attention.

    Several people interviewed said they had witnessed deaths after torture.

    Boko Haram’s insurgency has claimed more than 20,000 lives and forced  2.7 million out of their homes in northeastern Nigeria and neighboring countries of Cameroon, Chad and Niger.

    The countries all contribute to a multinational force to combat the insurgency.

  • 92 Boko Haram members killed in Cameroon

    Cameroon’s army killed 92 members of Boko Haram sect and freed 850 villagers in a joint operation with Nigerian forces, the government of the Central African nation said on Friday.

    The operation in the Nigerian village of Kumshe, close to the border with Cameroon, was conducted under the auspices of a multinational force fighting Boko Haram, a statement from Communications Minister, Issa Tchiroma Bakary, said.

    “Two Cameroonian soldiers were killed (during the operation) by an accidental mine explosion. Five other soldiers were wounded,” Reuters quoted Bakary as saying in the statement.

    He added that the army captured weapons and ammunition and found a centre for production of homemade mines.

    There was no immediate comment from Nigeria or independent confirmation of the operation or toll, Reuters added.

  • Cameroon soldiers kill 27 Boko Haram fighters

    Cameroon soldiers killed at least 27 Boko Haram fighters after launching a cross-border operation in Goshi, Nigeria that also resulted in the death of one soldier, a senior military official said.

    Capt. Yari Emmanuel, the head of Cameroon’s Rapid Intervention Battalion, was also killed and at least six other soldiers were injured in the operation early Thursday.

    The terror sect had launched a series of attacks in Cameroon earlier this week, said Kodji.

    “At least 27 Boko Haram fighters were killed in Thursday morning’s operation,” said Gen. Jacob Kodji, commander of Cameroon troops in the area.

    The soldiers remain on the battle front there, he said.

    Regional forces from Cameroon and Nigeria have since December 2015 been launching raids on Boko Haram strongholds along their borders, especially around Ashigashiya.

    Ashigashiya straddles the border of northern Cameroon and Nigeria.

  • Cameroon troops free 900 Boko Haram hostages

    … Kill 100 insurgents

    Cameroon’s army, with backing from a regional anti-Boko Haram task force, have killed at least 100 Boko Haram militants and freed 900 people it had held hostage, the army and defence ministry said on Wednesday.

    “In the course of this operation, at least 100 members of Boko Haram were killed. 900 hostages detained by Boko Haram were freed,” Reuters quoted the Cameroonian army spokesman, Col. Didier Badjeck, as saying on the matter.

    The defence ministry also cited the same figures in a brief statement on state television.

     

     

     

  • Three Boko Haram suspects arrested in Cameroon

    Cameroon officials have arrested three suspects carrying a bag containing improvised explosive devices in the northern town of Maroua where a spate of suspected Boko Haram suicide attacks killed at least 40 last week, sources have said.

    The men were caught on Thursday evening at the entrance of the city following a tip-off, a senior military source with the Central African nation’s special forces in Maroua told Reuters.

    “The suspect who was carrying the bag with the explosives is a Nigerian. The other two are Cameroonians, according to their identity cards,” another senior local government administrator said on telephone from Maroua.

    He said the young men, aged about 20, were suspected Boko Haram militants planning another attack.

    Cameroon has increased troops and tightened security in the northern regional capital following the suicide bombings, the deepest incursion by suspected Boko Haram militants from neighbouring Nigeria.

    Cameroon security officials also carried out a raid on Thursday in Kousseri, some 220 km (140 miles) north of Maroua, where some 2,000 Nigerians who were living in the country without permits were loaded in trucks and taken across the border.

    A local administrator said the raid was part of measures aimed at improving security and controlling movements along the border region.