Cameroonian soldiers captured shooting helpless women jailed 10 years each

A frozen video of a Cameroonian soldier blindfolding a women before shooting her. [Courtesy, Standard]

Four Cameroonian soldiers who were captured in a 2015 video shooting dead two women and two children have been handed 10-year jail sentence each.

According to BBC, the Cameroonian authorities have identified the soldiers including three officers who pulled the trigger.

The graphic video of the soldiers shooting the harmless women emerged in 2018 sending the West African country and the world into a state of shock. The footage attracted millions of viewership as the world condemned the incident and called on the Yaounde government to act.

But on its defence, Cameroonian government Spokesperson rubbished the video as “fake news” claiming the incident happened in Mali. The government official argued that the military fatigue used by officers in the video did not resemble the uniform of Cameroonian officers operating in the Northern border of the country-where the incident occurred.

In the video, which has been circulated in the social media, soldiers are seen arguing with the women. One of the women has a child tied on her back. According to BBC report, the military officers were accusing the women of colluding with Boko Haram insurgents who had been terrorising parts of Nigeria, and was threatening to expand its territory into Cameroon.

The officers then matched the victims on a dusty road, forced them to kneel down and blindfolded them after which they pumped them with bullets 22 times.

The Cameroonian government would then own up after investigation which led to arrest of seven soldiers over the incident.

Two of the officers were acquitted by a military court in Yaounde, while one was handed two-year jail term for video recording the incident and sharing it.

The remaining four were slapped with 10-year jail term, a sentence which appeared lenient but is in line with the Cameroonian martial law.