Cameroon detains eight soldiers after torture video emerges

Cameroon has detained eight soldiers after a video emerged over the weekend showing them in uniform torturing a victim with a machete until he fell unconscious, the Central African nation’s defence ministry said on Monday.

The incident, which occurred on February 11 in the North-West Region, one of the country’s English-speaking regions where separatist insurgents have been battling government forces since 2017, is the latest in a series of atrocities and suspected rights abuse in the drawn-out conflict.

What began as peaceful protests over marginalisation in Cameroon’s two English-speaking regions by the majority French-speaking government in 2016 has degenerated into a violent insurgency pitting separatist groups against Cameroon’s army.

Over 3,000 people have been killed in the conflict and nearly a million have been displaced, with both sides regularly accused of committing atrocities.

The ministry said the man in the video was suspected of helping separatist fighters.

 “The concerned (soldiers) have been detained on the instructions of the defence minister,” the statement said.

Edited by Olajumoke Adeleke