How Boko Haram suspects were killed, tortured by Cameroon’s Intelligence – Amnesty

Right group, Amnesty International, on Thursday said that dozens of Boko Haram suspects have died in custody of the Cameroonian security forces, while being brutally tortured in the fight against the jihadist group.
Boko Haram which originated in Nigeria has frequently carried out attacks in Cameroon, Chad and Niger.

The NGO maintained that it had found 101 people who said they were held in secret and tortured by the Rapid Intervention Battalion (BIR) and the General Directorate of External Research (DGRE), Cameroon’s intelligence services, between March 2013 and March 2017.
“They asked me to tell them if I knew members of Boko Haram. That’s when the guard tied my hands and feet behind my back and started to beat me with an electric cable, while throwing water on me at the same time,” Amnesty cited a prisoner as saying.

“They beat me half to death,” he added.

Of the 101 documented individuals, 32 claimed to have witnessed the death of a fellow prisoner.
According to Amnesty report, “Cameroon’s Secret Torture Chambers: Human Rights Violations and War Crimes in the Fight Against Boko Haram,” the group said most of the tortures were carried out in two sites: the BIR headquarters in Salak and a DGRE facility in Yaounde.
Amnesty revealed that US and French military personnel were present at the BIR base in Salak and called on the two governments to investigate whether they were aware that illegal detention and tortures were taking place on site.