Human Rights Watch on Friday said 20 women including four physically challenged have been raped by Cameroonian soldiers in a raid of the English-speaking secessionist region.
According to HRW, the ‘shameful’ act was against the village of Ebam, in the country’s southwest.
A statement by the group claimed that some soldiers rounded up the men in the village while their colleagues raped the women. It also claimed that a 34-year-old man was killed in a forest close to the village.
Quoting the survivors, HRW said more than 50 soldiers entered Ebam by foot before dawn on March 1 last year, in retaliation against civilians suspected of cooperating with separatist fighters, including offering them shelter.
In 2017, resentment over years of perceived discrimination at the hands of Cameroon’s francophone majority resulted in a declaration of independence by anglophone radicals.
Their self-declared state, Ambazonia, has not been recognised internationally, and the central government in Yaounde has responded with a crackdown.
In his reaction, Ida Sawyer, deputy Africa director at Human Rights Watch explained said that “Sexual violence and torture are heinous crimes that governments have an obligation to immediately, effectively, and independently investigate, and bring those responsible to justice. One year on, survivors of the Ebam attack are desperate for justice and reparations, and they live with the disturbing knowledge that those who abused them are walking free and have faced no consequences.”
Meanwhile, army authority declined to comment when contacted by AFP.
One 40-year-old woman told HRW that five masked soldiers entered her home. “One of them abused me. He said: ‘If you don’t have sex with me, I will kill you!’. I was too afraid to say or do anything,” the woman told the rights group. “After the rape, I ran into the bush where I spent two months. I am still upset and traumatised.”
HRW added that the raped women could not receive treatment immediately after the incident due to financial incapability and social stigma.
Meanwhile, both the separatists and government troops have been accused of killing over 3,000 civilians while 700,000 have abandoned their home during the separatist conflict since 2017.