A patrol of Cameroonian gendarmes in the Omar Bongo Square, Buea, capital of the South-West region, on October 3, on the sidelines of a political rally. The United Nations Security Council should put the situation in Cameroon on its agenda, condemn torture and incommunicado detention, and call for the government to end these practices, Human Rights Watch said.
Human Rights Watch documented 26 cases of incommunicado detention and enforced disappearance at the SED detention site between January and January , including 14 cases of torture. The total numbers are likely much higher, because abuses are committed in secret and many former detainees are reluctant to speak because they fear reprisals.
Human Rights Watch has received further credible accounts since April, indicating that these violations continue. The authorities have detained people incommunicado and tortured detainees at the SED since at least The torture methods Human Rights Watch documented, including severe beatings and near-drowning, have also been used in both official and illegal, unofficial detention facilities throughout the country.
Among those interviewed, three said they were former separatist fighters; the rest said they were civilians. Fourteen alleged physical abuses that amounted to torture, and eleven said they witnessed torture against other detainees and were threatened. All 26 detainees, including two women and an month-old child, were held incommunicado at the SED between January and January , many for several months, without any contact with family, friends, or legal counsel.
Five former detainees said that their presence at the SED was hidden from international monitors, including the International Committee of the Red Cross, whose delegates visited the site in July Gendarmes and others at the detention facility used torture and other ill-treatment to force suspects to confess to crimes, or to humiliate and punish them, the former detainees said.
