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A military court in Cameroon has handed jail terms to three soldiers found guilty of involvement in the killing of 21 civilians during unrest in the country’s English-speaking northwest in 2020, victims’ lawyers said Friday.
The court issued the sentences on Thursday in connection with violence that erupted in February 2020 in the village of Ngarbuh.
Human rights groups said government troops, alongside an ethnic militia, raided the village, killing at least 21 civilians, including 13 children and a pregnant woman.
“Sergeant Baba Guida was sentenced to eight years’ imprisonment. Gendarme Haranga Gilbert was sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment. Corporal Sanding Sanding was sentenced to five years’ imprisonment,” the lawyers said.
The Cameroonian government at first denied that its forces had deliberately participated in the killings. However, a legal case was later opened, leading to one of the rare convictions of military personnel in the country.
The violence occurred in Cameroon’s North-West region, one of two English-speaking areas that have been engulfed in nearly a decade of armed conflict following attempts to secede from the predominantly French-speaking country.
The unrest began in late 2016 after President Paul Biya, who has ruled Cameroon for more than 42 years, used force to suppress peaceful demonstrations by English-speaking communities who complained of marginalisation.
