Torture and Detention in Cameroon ← Forensic Architecture

Since 2014, Cameroon has been at war with Boko Haram, an armed extremist group responsible for thousands of murders and abductions across the Lake Chad Basin, at the northern edge of the country.

In the context of that conflict, Cameroon’s security forces, trained and supported by the US and European governments, and armed by Israeli private companies, routinely commit acts of violence against civilians in the country’s Far North region.

Amnesty International collected evidence of over a hundred cases of illegal detention, torture and extra-judicial killing of Cameroonian citizens accused of supporting or being a member of Boko Haram, at around twenty military sites across the country, in 2015 and 2016.

From testimony, hand-drawn maps and interviews with survivors, Forensic Architecture (FA) reconstructed two of these facilities—a regional army headquarters, and an occupied school—in order to investigate the conditions of incarceration and torture described by former detainees.

At both sites, detainees were kept in degrading and inhumane conditions in dark, crowded, airless cells. All were fed poorly, and most were tortured routinely. Dozens of detainees report witnessing deaths at the hands of Cameroon’s elite military unit, the Rapid Intervention Battalion (BIR), or the Cameroonian intelligence agency, the DGRE.

A satellite image of the Salak military base, from 2017. (Forensic Architecture)

Testimony – 1 - Detainees were routinely tortured and interrogated at Salak by members of Cameroon's intelligence agency, the DGRE. (Forensic Architecture)

Detainees were routinely tortured and interrogated at Salak by members of Cameroon's intelligence agency, the DGRE. (Forensic Architecture)

FA’s research also uncovered the presence of US personnel—both military and private contractors—at one of the sites. Using satellite imagery, open-source material, and images gathered from social media, Forensic Architecture demonstrated the proximity of those personnel to sites of incarceration and torture, raising troubling questions for continued American support of Cameroon’s security forces.

A pair of companion articles, co-authored with US news website The Intercept, further explores some of the material uncovered in the course of our investigation.

Satellite image – 2 - A map of Salak, a regional military headquarters, where detainees are held illegally in inhumane conditions and tortured routinely. This map shows the proximity of US personnel to the locations where torture and detention occur. (Forensic Architecture)

A map of Salak, a regional military headquarters, where detainees are held illegally in inhumane conditions and tortured routinely. This map shows the proximity of US personnel to the locations where torture and detention occur. (Forensic Architecture)

Methodology

Amnesty International provided FA with testimony or summary information relating to over one hundred cases of illegal detention, torture, and extrajudicial killing at sites around Cameroon’s Far North region. That information and testimony was gleaned from over 140 interviews conducted by the NGO’s researchers.

Information relating to space, movement or architecture within that testimony informed the development of FA’s 3D models of the Salak and Fotokol facilities, and further conversation with witnesses, conducted through Amnesty’s researchers, helped us to clarify specific details as required.

Open-source research, including analysis of social media, established connections from the Salak facility to US contractors and military personnel, and ultimately revealed the previously unreported presence of US Special Forces personnel at the base.

Updates

Update — 26 July 2017

A former State Department analyst asked in the editorial pages of the Washington Post whether the US is ‘turning a blind eye’ to human rights abuses by its allies’ security forces. Our investigation is specifically cited.

Regarding the presence of US personnel at the Salak military base, the article concluded: ‘it is hard to believe that our eagle-eyed special operators could have been oblivious’.

Update — 7 August 2017

CNN reports that the US military is conducting an inquiry into the allegations made in our investigation, at the request of the leader of US Africa Command, Gen. Thomas Waldhauser.

According to Amnesty International, the investigation concluded in late 2017. The results are yet to be made public.