Human rights group Amnesty International has urged Serbia to stop selling arms to Cameroon after a video of executions in Cameroon featured what seemed to be soldiers using Serbian-made arms.
Amnesty International told Balkan Investigative Network last week that Cameroonian soldiers had used Serbian-made weapons in a string of “systematic violations” of human rights, and has called on Serbia to suspend arms export to the African state.
“Given the credible evidence of a Zastava M21 being used by Cameroonian soldiers to carry out the horrific extrajudicial executions of two women and two young children, Serbia – a major supplier of small arms to Cameroon – should suspend further supplies,” Patrick Wilcken, an arms-control researcher at Amnesty International, told BIRN.
“This is not the first time Amnesty International has documented human rights abuses by Cameroonian forces using Serbian small arms. Rather, it reflects a pattern of systematic violations,” Wilcken added.
A video emerged two weeks ago showing men wearing uniforms belonging to the Cameroonian military executing two women and children but the government of Cameroon has since denied the men were Cameroonian soldiers describing the news as fake.
Despite reports of the arrest of four soldiers in connection to the incident, the government of Cameroon through the Minister of Communication Issa Tchiroma Bakary has maintained the video is fake and an attempt to destabilize Cameroon.
According to data from the UN/Arms Trade Treaty, Cameroon has been one of the largest recipients of Serbian weapons since 2013.