It also denounces security forces for raiding villages, destroying homes, killing civilians and detaining more than a thousand suspects, some as young as five years old. In one attack in October, Boko Haram shot or slit the throats of at least 30 people in the border town of Ambchide, Amnesty said. More than 130 people remain missing.
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Boko Haram emerged in in 2009 as a Nigeria-based insurgent group, but has expanded its presence to the neighboring countries of Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Benin – killing more than 16,000 people in the process.
“By killing indiscriminately, destroying civilian property, abducting people and using children as suicide bombers, they have committed war crimes and caused untold fear and suffering to the civilian population”, he said.
“At the same time, while providing much needed protection [from Boko Haram] to civilians, the response by the Cameroonian security forces has been marred by serious violations”, it added.
“Cameroon’s security forces have killed civilians unlawfully or through the excessive use of force”.
He said investigation had revealed that overcrowding, lack of sanitation and inadequate health care in a prison in Maroua had led to the death of at least 40 prisoners between March and May. “Two soldiers and one Boko Haram militant were killed”, Babatouran said.
They human rights watch dog listed those interviewed to include victims and eyewitnesses of attacks committed by both Boko Haram and Camerounian security forces, government officials, including the Minister of Justice, members of the security forces, journalists, human rights defenders, diplomats, humanitarian workers, and other experts.
Boko Haram, behind a 6-year-old insurgency aimed at carving out an Islamic state in Nigeria’s restive North-East, has made regular forays into Northern Cameroon over the past 2 years.
“In the most extreme cordon and search operation documented by Amnesty international, 35 direct eyewitnesses and a senior military source confirmed that at least 200 men and boys were arrested on December 27, 2014 in the villages of Magdeme and Doublé”. Boko Haram performed the most violent and serious abuses but the national army also launched a heavy-handed response to stop the fundamentalists which also led to abuses.
Based on the evidence gathered, Amnesty international believes that an internal armed conflict is taking place in Northern Cameroon.
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But it is not just Nigerian fighters who are perpetrating the violence. Authorities in Cameroon have not yet commented on the report.
