Cameroon Intelligence Report sources in Yaoundé have revealed that scores of Southern Cameroons detainees have lost their lives since 2017 after being exposed to various forms of brutal torture at the hands of their French Cameroun interrogators in prisons and detention centres all over La Republique du Cameroun.

Ambazonia Vice President Dabney Yerima said in a recent report before a trip to Switzerland that French Cameroun prison officials use various methods of torture, both physically and psychologically, against Ambazonia detainees. “They have been humiliating their personality and pressuring them to speak low of the Southern Cameroons diaspora” Comrade Yerima said.

The Southern Cameroons Vice President also pointed to the case of Ambazonia detainees killed during the Kondengui Prison Revolt by French Cameroun troops loyal to the Biya Francophone Beti Ewondo regime.

French Cameroun warfare-trained infantry forces known as the Rapid Intervention Battalion (BIR) reportedly killed many Southern Cameroons prisoners in Douala New Bell after torturing them. Southern Cameroons detainees were was also badly tortured in the Buea Prison and many were transferred to Tcholeri, where some passed away.

Two Southern Cameroons detainees died shortly after they were severely beaten by French Cameroun soldiers at Mbouda in the West region.

Our chief intelligence officer in Yaoundé leading an independent investigation has highlighted that the concept of torture is not limited to the use of violence against Southern Cameroons detainees during their arrest and interrogation, but all the appalling procedures that they go through inside French Cameroun detention centers fall within the framework of torture.

The most notorious of these methods include solitary confinement that is constantly being used on the Ambazonia leader, President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and his top aides and detention of Southern Cameroons detainees in harsh and compelling conditions that do not meet the minimum health standards.

French Cameroun physical torture against Ambazonia detainees from the very first moment of their arrest, beating them on different parts of their bodies, without any consideration to the injury of some detainees has resulted in severe injuries, which has caused amputations and diseases that accompanied the prisoners even after some were release.

Sleep deprivation through continuous interrogation sessions of up to 12 hours, restricting the detainees during their interrogation, tightening restrictions to prevent blood circulation from reaching their hands, beatings, slapping, kicking, verbal abuse, intentional humiliation, as well as threats to arrest a family member, threats of sexual assault, denial of toilet use, denial of bathing or changing clothes for days or weeks, exposure to extreme heat, constant noise and verbal abuse are among other methods of torture use by the French Cameroun prison apparatus.

More than 2,000 Southern Cameroonians are reportedly held in La Republique du Cameroun jails. Hundreds of the inmates have apparently been incarcerated under the practice of administrative detention, a policy under which Ambazonian inmates are kept in French Cameroun detention facilities without trial or charge. Some Southern Cameroons prisoners have been held in administrative detention for up to three years.

By Sama Ernest and Rita Akana in Yaounde