Alleged rebels claim to have confessed under torture

Members of a group accused of armed attacks in northwest Cameroon in 1997 in which 11 people reportedly died told a military court in Yaounde on Tuesday that they had confessed under torture, news organisations reported. A media source in Yaounde told IRIN the men claimed they were tortured by gendarmes after being detained in connection with attacks on 27-28 March 1997 on the gendarmerie and other targets in Jakiri, Kumbo, Bamenda and three more localities in western Cameroon. The gendarmes have denied the reports of torture, the source said. Some 60 people, suspected of belonging to the Southern Cameroon National Council (SCNC), a group seeking independence for Cameroon's English-speaking western and north-western provinces, were arrested in connection with the attacks. Their trial opened on 25 June after a vain attempt by the defence in late May to have the military tribunal declared incompetent to try their cases. It has now been adjourned to 27 July. The two provinces formed the former British Southern Cameroons, which opted at independence in 1961 to join what was then French Cameroon. British Northern Cameroons became part of Nigeria.