Amnesty International has accused authorities in Cameroon with committing numerous Human Rights violations in their crackdown on the militant group Boko Haram, including the killing of dozens of civilians, torture, and the arbitrary mass arrests of suspects. The human rights group accuses Cameroonian authorities of detaining more than 1,000 people in “horrific conditions,” resulting in an average of eight deaths each month from malnutrition, disease and torture in Maroua Prison in the Far North region of the country. “In seeking to protect its population from the brutality of Boko Haram, Cameroon is pursuing the right objective; but in arbitrarily arresting, torturing and subjecting people to enforced disappearances, the authorities are using the wrong means,” said Alioune Tine, the organization’s director in West and Central Africa. Amnesty is calling on the government to implement measures to end the practices and to allow detainees to have access to their families and to lawyers. The Cameroonian government has not commented on the report, which was based on interviews with more than 200 people between October 2015 and July 2016. Boko Haram has killed at least 15,000 people in the past seven years. The group pledged allegiance last year to Islamic State and has since responded to an offensive by forces from Nigeria and other neighboring countries by launching attacks across Nigeria’s borders.

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