UN committee urges Cameroon to investigate extrajudicial killings
By the AFREEQUE newsroom, based on Mimi Mefo Info
The UN Human Rights Committee calls on Cameroon to investigate extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances and torture by security forces. It also calls for the protection of journalists and human rights defenders, on the day Paul Biya marks 44 years in power, according to Mimi Mefo Info.
The UN Human Rights Committee calls on Cameroon to investigate extrajudicial executions, enforced disappearances and torture attributed to security forces, and to better protect civilians from armed groups, according to Mimi Mefo Info. The committee also urges the authorities to protect journalists and human rights defenders, and to prevent criminal law from being used to silence dissenting voices. Its findings were published on the day President Paul Biya marked 44 years in power since his swearing-in on 6 November 1982.
The committee is concerned about killings, abductions and sexual violence attributed to armed separatist groups in the North-West and South-West, as well as to groups linked to Boko Haram in the Far North. It also questions the role of civilian vigilante militias engaged in the fight against terrorism, notably in Ngarbuh, where civilians were killed. Experts asked what legal basis governs these groups and how many of their members have been prosecuted.
During the hearing in Geneva on 22 and 23 October, the Cameroonian delegation said security forces receive training in the use of force and face disciplinary proceedings in cases of abuse. It said 15 gendarmes were sanctioned in 2025 for excessive use of force.
This publication comes as Paul Biya remains absent from public view since September, after announcing that he would not attend the Russia-Africa summit in Moscow.
