Military brutality in Ndu: Are police, gendarmes, soldiers trained to reign terror?

Cameroonians are yet to come to terms with the recent conduct of some security officers.

In a viral video said to have been shot on February 11, Youth Day, in Ndu in the North West Region, they are seen torturing a man to near-death.

What has left many mortified is the language used by the security elements.

In the clip, one of the officers was heard threatening to behead the civilian.

“I will cut off your head”, he threatened the young man whose brother is a suspected separatist fighter.


Cheering each other as they took turns to torture him with a machete in the back, buttocks, belly, and soles of his feet, they kept cursing him.

“That’s the way we do to students in Yaoundé … When we carry out a raid on students, this is how we treat them,” revealed one of the perpetrators.

“Straighten your feet, you will walk limping,” yelled another as the torture ensued.

One of the security elements went as far as promising the civilian death: “That’s how we kill at the front … Even if he dies here, we will bury him”.

“No one should see what we are doing, no one, even those of the council,” another stated

At the end of the close to 10-minute action, one of them is heard confirming that the young man is not a separatist fighter despite the torture given him.

Some media outlets report that the young man was later released and is receiving medical care.

Many have however raised concerns over the torture, noting that it was one of several instances that have often gone unreported in the country’s English-speaking regions.

From the silence of authorities to outright denial, the forces of law and order are said to have gotten away with several rights violations, giving them a feeling of impunity.

Their language, observers say, is another indicator of not only impunity but indignation and malicious intent towards the population.

At press time, authorities are yet to heed calls from the Ndu divisional officer for disciplinary action to be taken against the security elements.

Mimi Mefo Info

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