Published on : 20/08/2022 – 01:45
The NGO alerts, in a report published this Thursday, August 18, on the authoritarian excesses following the launch, at the beginning of May, of “ the cleaning operation aiming to rid the streets of the gangs that plague the country.
The establishment of a curfew, from 10 p.m. to 9 a.m., would have led the security forces to arbitrarily arrest around 1,000 people since the start of the operation. The families have no news of their sons, as explained by Marta Colomer, campaigner for English-speaking and Spanish-speaking countries in West Africa for Amnesty.
« In this operation, they took a lot of boys who are innocent, who have nothing to do with criminal activities. We talk about it with the families. The phrase they all say is “these are such ordinary boys, who work, who study”. They constantly wonder “Where is my child, where is my boy. Why did they take him? Where is he?”
Amnesty International recognizes the obligation to fight crime recalls Marta Colomer, ” but, what we do not accept, is to use this fight to not respect human rights ». « There are many reports that these young men were abused and tortured during arrest and detention. In the same way, we have information that two of these boys who were arrested in a totally arbitrary manner have died. »
Amnesty calls for those responsible for these deaths to be identified and brought to justice.