Four Cameroonian
soldiers were sentenced Monday to 10 years in prison for the execution-style
killings of two women and their children in a region where the army is fighting
jihadists.
A fifth soldier received a
two-year sentence.
A video was broadcast on
social media in July 2018 showing soldiers shooting two kneeling, blindfolded
women as well as a baby on one of their backs and a girl.
The government initially denied
the army’s involvement, dismissing the video as “fake news”.
But after Amnesty
International provided credible evidence, the authorities announced that the
seven soldiers seen in the video had been arrested and would be prosecuted.
Two were later acquitted.
The military
court in the capital Yaounde handed down the murder verdict and sentences after
the trial was adjourned several times.
The seven soldiers had pleaded
not guilty nearly a year ago.
The killings took place in
Zeleved, in Cameroon’s Far North region where troops have been deployed to
fight Boko Haram jihadists carrying out cross-border attacks from Nigeria.
International human rights
organisations regularly denounce abuses and crimes committed against civilians
by security forces in Cameroon.
Three soldiers were charged
with murder in June over a massacre earlier this year in western Cameroon,
where security forces are fighting anglophone separatists.
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