Caught in the fight against Boko Haram, three young Cameroonians risk the death penalty

Marie Dawandala, Damaris Doukouya and Martha Weteya were only 17 years old when they were arrested, in October 2014, in their village near Mokolo, in the Francophone region of the Far North, in Cameroon, a stone's throw from the Nigerian border. They are accused of complicity with Boko Haram, the terrorist group then raging in eastern Nigeria and in border areas, including the Far North particularly affected. Between 2014 and 2017, 2,000 civilians and soldiers were killed and more than a thousand people were kidnapped in the region by the jihadist group. 

After several dismissals, their trial for espionage, belonging to an armed gang and complicity in insurrection must finally begin on July 24 in Mokolo. Now 23 years old, they face the death penalty. But their lawyer, Me Nestor Toko, several associations and the network Together against the death penalty (ECPM) are leading a campaign to denounce a miscarriage of justice, one more in a region of Cameroon where several hundred prisoners would face, according to them, to the same injustice.

"The Cameroonian authorities have arbitrarily arrested hundreds of suspected Boko Haram supporters, many of them without a thorough investigation, and accused them of terrorism, punishable by the death penalty," Marie-Lina Samuel, Africa project coordinator, explained in a statement. from ECPM. In its report "Condemned to oblivion: investigative mission on death row in Cameroon", the NGO underlines the increase in unfair trials in terrorism cases in this central African country.  

The fight against Boko Haram and the consequences of an ultra-security response

In 2013, the three young women left the Far North, the poorest region of Cameroon, to look for work in Nigeria. They settle just across the border, in Madagali, Adamawa State. But instead of the hoped-for job, it is violence and conflict that they find in the neighboring country.

That year, Boko Haram multiplied the terrorist attacks and indiscriminate attacks against the civilian populations in eastern Nigeria. Despite the intervention of the Nigerian army, it was impossible to stop the expansion of the group. In 2014, Boko Haram continued its territorial control, and systematized kidnappings. Tens of thousands of civilians are fleeing the group's abuses and clashes with the army to seek refuge in neighboring Niger, Chad or Cameroon. In this context, in September 2014, Marie, Damaris and Martha urgently returned to their Cameroonian village.

Cameroon is in turn committed to the fight against Boko Haram, in the face of attacks by the group, which notably led an incursion into the far north of the country in May 2014. The fight against the jihadists became a national cause and the security forces led "search operations", arresting thousands of people. But they are also guilty of "human rights violations", according to an Amnesty International report published in 2015. It is in this context that the three young women, still minors, were arrested in October 2014. 

Accused of belonging to Boko Haram without understanding why

At the time, Damaris had just given birth and Marie was pregnant. None of them have been to school, they do not speak the French used by the judicial administration and the police, and do not have the means to hire a lawyer. They struggle to understand the charges against them.

“When I was arrested, I was not told why. It was at the gendarmerie in Maroua that I learned that I would belong to Boko Haram. My heart stopped; I lost consciousness. . When I woke up, my body no longer belonged to me. I was breastfeeding my child, and my breast no longer flowed. I did not understand: while we were all fleeing Boko Haram, I was accused of belonging to the group " , confided Damaris, in a report of the Cornell Center, an American organization against the death penalty engaged in the campaign of defense of the three young women.

"I was accused of being with Boko Haram when I didn't know anything about it. Until my death, this bad word from Boko Haram will be engraved in me", testifies Marie for her part.

In prison for 6 years with their children

The young women are imprisoned first in Moloko then in the central prison of Maroua where Marie gives birth to her son. In 2016, after 17 months of preventive detention, Marie, Damaris and Martha were brought before a military court which sentenced them to death for complicity in terrorism.

Imprisoned in deplorable conditions - overcrowding, lack of food, hygiene, heating, lack of medical care, isolation, etc. - they raise their children in prison while awaiting execution. Until 2019, when lawyer Nestor Toko, president of the Network of Cameroonian lawyers against the death penalty, decides to defend them. He succeeds in having the death sentence annulled by the military court, which is not empowered to try minors, and manages to have their case transferred to the civil court of Mokolo.

"Orders for the example"

On July 24, 2020, it is before this court that he will request the outright annulment of the procedure. "The whole file is based on an irregular preliminary investigation. This file is empty," he explained to France 24.

"These women were arrested on the basis of the confession of a single witness, interrogated under torture and threatened not to see his child again if he did not give names," said the lawyer who was able to meet the witness, himself imprisoned. "The witness then had to sign the minutes without understanding the content since he cannot read. It is a common practice in this region of Cameroon", he adds, denouncing violations of the procedures and fundamental principles of justice.

"The Cameroonian authorities have carried out a systematic repression campaign to show that they could ensure the safety of citizens but in defiance of human rights", estimates the lawyer. "The presumption of innocence is flouted. These women have served almost 6 years in prison without having had the right to a fair trial. It is a punishment without judgment", asserts the lawyer who denounces "the lack of independence of Justice". "We made these women examples in the fight against terrorism; today, their lives are shattered", he regrets.

Today, although Boko Haram still carries out repeated attacks in the villages of the Far North located not far from the border with Nigeria, looting and razing everything in their path, the fight against the group is no longer erected. national issue. Since 2016, it is the Anglophone crisis that has focused all eyes.

In Maroua or Mokolo, life has resumed its course and the time for the curfew seems far away. The decrease in conflict intensity could therefore benefit young women. But Nesto Toko remains cautious. According to him, the trial is not immune to new dismissals and he fears that the procedure will last several more months. Marie, Martha, and Damaris oscillate between the fear of being condemned to death again and the meager hope of one day being, perhaps, freed and cleared of all suspicion.

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