A report published by international human rights organisation, Human Rights Watch (HRW) has brought to light details of an attack said to have been carried out by soldiers during a raid in Ebam village, Manyu Division, South West region in which at least 20 women, including four with disabilities were raped, 36 locals arrested, and one killed.
Grave of one of those killed after being arrested by soldiers according to HRW report
The report published in Nairobi, Kenya by Ida Sawyer, Deputy Africa Director at HRW, Friday 26 February 2021, describes the attack which they revealed took place 1 March 2020 as “one of the worst by Cameroon’s army in recent years” – it occurred 16 days after soldiers in Ngarbuh, North-West region massacred 21 civilians, including a pregnant woman and 13 children.“The soldiers also burned one home, looted scores of properties, and severely beat the men they took to a military base,” a portion of the report read, adding that based on information obtained, no effective investigation has been done to hold perpetrators accountable for the crimes even though “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,” the HRW report stated, adding, that its findings were shared with senior officials at the Presidency in a January 13 letter, requesting answers to specific questions which are still to be answered.
Ebam village, Manyu Division, SWR
HRW in the report said it conducted telephone interviews between August 1 and January 5, 2021 with 20 rape survivors, four men who were arrested and beaten, four witnesses to the attack, two relatives of the man who was killed, a medical doctor who screened the rape survivors, two aid workers who helped the victims, and two United Nations officials with knowledge of the incident as well as watched confidential reports by an international NGO and the Centre for Human Rights and Democracy in Africa.The report quotes eyewitnesses as saying over 50 soldiers entered the village at about 3 a.m. on March 1, 2020, on foot leaving their vehicles in the outskirts. “They broke into almost all the 75 homes in the village, looting money and other items, and dragging men out. Some soldiers rounded up men in the village center, while others sexually assaulted the women, including four with disabilities, mostly in their homes,” it read.
It added that after the three-hour attack, soldiers took at least 36 men to their base in Besongabang, about eight kilometres away, where they beat the men severely and repeatedly, detained them for a day then transferred them to the gendarmerie brigade in Mamfe.
Among the four men held at the military base in Besongabang was 34-year-old Ojong Thomas Ebot whose lifeless body is said to have been discovered few hours after a military truck returned to the village and left.
The rights organisation says the attack has gone largely unreported for a year, due in part to the stigma and fear of reprisal which discourages survivors of sexual violence from speaking out about what they experienced as well as suggest that incidents of sexual violence by soldiers is probably much higher than the documented cases.
By Doh Bertrand Nua
No comments:
Post a Comment