The earliest inhabitants of Cameroon were probably the Bakas (Pygmies). They still inhabit the forests of the south and east provinces. Bantu speakers originating in the Cameroonian highlands were among the first groups to move out before other invaders. During the late 1770s and early 1800s, the Fulani, a pastoral Islamic people of the western Sahel, conquered most of what is now northern Cameroon, subjugating or displacing its largely non-Muslim inhabitants.

Although the Portuguese arrived on Cameroon's coast in the 1500s, malaria prevented significant European settlement and conquest of the interior until the late 1870s, when large supplies of the malaria suppressant, quinine, became available. The early European presence in Cameroon was primarily devoted to coastal trade and the acquisition of slaves. The northern part of Cameroon was an important part of the Muslim slave trade network. The slave trade was largely suppressed by the mid-l9th century. Christian missions established a presence in the late 19th century and continue to play a role in Cameroonian life.

Beginning in 1884, all of present-day Cameroon and parts of several of its neighbors became the German colony of Kamerun, with a capital first at Buea and later at Yaounde. After World War I, this colony was partitioned between Britain and France under a June 28, 1919 League of Nations mandate. France gained the larger geographical share, transferred outlying regions to neighboring French colonies, and ruled the rest from Yaounde. Britain's territory--a strip bordering Nigeria from the sea to Lake Chad, with an equal population--was ruled from Lagos.

In 1955, the outlawed Union of the Peoples of Cameroon (UPC), based largely among the Bamileke and Bassa ethnic groups, began an armed struggle for independence in French Cameroon. This rebellion continued, with diminishing intensity, even after independence. Estimates of death from this conflict vary from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands. French Cameroon achieved independence in 1960 as the Republic of Cameroon. The following year the largely Muslim northern two-thirds of British Cameroon voted to join Nigeria; the largely Christian southern third voted to join with the Republic of Cameroon to form the Federal Republic of Cameroon. The formerly French and British regions each maintained substantial autonomy. Ahmadou Ahidjo, a French-educated Fulani, was chosen president of the federation in 1961. Ahidjo, relying on a pervasive internal security apparatus, outlawed all political parties but his own in 1966. He successfully suppressed the UPC rebellion, capturing the last important rebel leader in 1970. In 1972, a new constitution replaced the federation with a unitary state. Ahidjo resigned as president in 1982 and was constitutionally succeeded by his Prime Minister, Paul Biya, a career official from the Bulu-Beti ethnic group. Ahidjo later regretted his choice of successors, but his supporters failed to overthrow Biya in a 1984 coup. Biya won single-candidate elections in 1983 and 1984 and in multiparty elections in 1992 and 1997. His Cameroon People's Democratic Movement (CPDM) party holds a sizeable majority in the legislature--116 deputies out of a total of 180.

Today Cameroon is a republic dominated by a strong presidency. Since independence, power has been held by the single party, CPDM. The 1997 election in which CPDM leader Paul Biya won reelection as President was an election boycotted by the three main opposition parties. The election was marred by a wide range of procedural flaws, and generally considered by observers not to be free and fair. The President retains the power to control legislation or to rule by decree. In the National Assembly, government bills take precedence over other bills, and no bills other than government bills have been enacted since 1991, although the Assembly sometimes has not enacted legislation proposed by the Government. The President has used his control of the legislature to change the Constitution. The 1996 Constitution lengthened the President's term of office to 7 years, while continuing to allow Biya to run for a fourth consecutive term in 1997 and making him eligible to run for one more 7-year term in 2004. In 2000 the Government began discussion on an action plan to create the decentralized institutions envisioned in the 1996 Constitution, such as a partially elected senate, elected regional councils, and a more independent judiciary; however, none of the plans had been executed by year's end. Early in the year, President Biya proposed and the National Assembly passed a bill to create a National Election Observatory. General elections have been postponed twice and were scheduled to occur no later than January 2002. The Government remained highly centralized and is dominated by the presidency. The judiciary is subject to political influence and suffers from corruption and inefficiency.

Cameroon criminal codes (in force since 1967 and based on the French colonial model) have failed to find a compromise with indigenous customs and appear on the contrary to be repressing traditional behaviors in a misguided effort to enforce social and economic development. This is particularly evident in the severe penalties levied against behaviors deemed negative, such as sorcery, mendacity, participation in secret societies, bigamy, and other acts grounded in the traditional social heritage. These policies raise crime levels, encourage disrespect for the law, and fail to satisfy the people's sense of justice.

The crime rate for Cameroon based on data reported to INTERPOL is so low that the data seem questionable. For the year 1998, the rates of crime for various offenses per 100,000 population were murder rate 0.38; sex offenses 1.37; rape 0.45; serious assault 1.17; theft (all kinds) 31.73; aggravated theft 6.79; auto theft 5.05; other thefts 19.89; and total offenses 78.17. Data were not reported for robbery or breaking and entering for year 1998. However, a description of the crime problem in Cameroon by the United States Embassy contrasts with these stated low rates of crime. According to the U.S. State Department's Consular Information Sheet, armed banditry is a serious problem throughout all ten provinces of Cameroon. Further, the risk of street and residential crime is high, and incidents of violent crime are on the rise throughout the country. Reports of carjackings and burglaries remain high, particularly in Yaounde and Douala. Carjackings have also been reported on rural highways. Crimes against property, such as carjacking, have often been accompanied by violent acts. Further, it is added that tourists and business people should note that there is an increasing circulation of counterfeit U.S. and Cameroonian currency in the country.

Trends in the reported rate of crime in Cameroon since 1995 have been upward in all areas of crime. Murder increased from 1995 to 1998 from 0.23 to 0.38 per 100,000 population; sex offenses from 0.23 to 1.37; rape from 0.17 to 0.45; serious assault from 0.05 to 1.17; theft (all kinds) from 4.69 to 31.73; aggravated theft from 1.89 to 6.79; auto theft from 0.22 to 5.05; other thefts from 2.58 to 19.89; and total offenses from 13.45 to 78.17. The robbery rate of 0.39 and the breaking and entering rate of 1.50 were reported for 1995 but not 1998. While the rise in reported crime between 1995 and 1998 was, on average, five-fold, much of this huge increase may be the result of better recording and reporting practices.

The legal system of national courts in Cameroon is based on the French civil law system, with common law influence; however, the legal system includes both national law and customary law, and many cases can be tried using either.

The national legal structure is influenced strongly by the French legal system, although in the Anglophone provinces certain aspects of the Anglo-Saxon tradition apply. The Constitution provides for a fair public hearing in which the defendant is presumed innocent. Because appointed attorneys received little compensation, the quality of legal representation for indigent persons often is poor. The Bar Association and some voluntary organizations, such as the Cameroonian Association of Female Jurists, offer free assistance in some cases. Trials normally were public, except in cases with political overtones judged disruptive of social peace.

Customary law is based upon the traditions of the ethnic group predominant in the region and is adjudicated by traditional authorities of that group. Accordingly, particular points of customary law differ depending upon the region and the ethnic group where a case is being tried. In some areas, traditional courts reportedly have tried persons accused of some offenses, such as practicing witchcraft, by subjecting them to an ordeal, such as drinking poison. Customary courts may exercise jurisdiction only with the consent of both parties to a case; either party has the right to have any case heard by a national rather than a customary court, and customary law is supposed to be valid only when it is not "repugnant to natural justice, equity, and good conscience." However, many citizens in rural areas remain unaware of their rights under civil law and have been taught since birth that customary laws form the rules by which they must abide. Consequently, traditional courts remain important in rural areas and serve as an alternative for settling disputes. Their authority varies by region and ethnic group, but they often are the arbiters of property and domestic disputes and may serve a probate function as well. Most traditional courts permit appeal of their decisions to traditional authorities of higher rank.

Internal security responsibilities are shared by the national police (DGSN), the National Intelligence Service (DGRE), the Gendarmerie, the Ministry of Territorial Administration, military intelligence, the army, and to a lesser extent, the Presidential Guard. The police and the Gendarmerie have dominant roles in enforcing internal security laws. The Douala Operational Command, a military anticrime unit established in February 2000, temporarily ceased operations during the year in response to increasing reports of human rights abuses committed by the Command. The security forces, including the military forces, remain under the effective control of the President, the civilian Minister of Defense, and the civilian head of police. An elite crime-fighting unit, the Light Intervention Battalion (BLI), was established in 1999, but only recently became operational. The BLI, which received extensive training from Israeli military consultants, reports directly to the Presidency. BLI members have been accused of conducting summary justice against suspected criminals. Preliminary reports indicated that this group has benefited from improved training and intelligence gathering methods; however, no further information was available at year's end.

The security forces have committed numerous serious human rights abuses. Security forces have committed numerous extrajudicial killings and are responsible for disappearances, some of which may have been motivated politically. They also have tortured, beaten, and otherwise abused detainees and prisoners, generally with impunity. Security forces have continued to arrest and detain arbitrarily various opposition politicians, local human rights monitors, and other citizens, often holding them for prolonged periods, often without charges or a chance for trial and, at times, incommunicado. The law prohibits such practices; however, there were numerous credible reports that security forces, including the Operational Command, torture, beat, and otherwise abuse prisoners and detainees. The Operational Command reportedly tortured some persons before summarily executing them. The U.N. Special Rapporteur on Torture, Nigel Rodley, in his report on the country released in 1999, stated that torture was widespread and used indiscriminately against persons under arrest or detained. Security forces also reportedly subjected women, children, and elderly persons to abuse. Most cases apparently were not reported to the relevant authorities because of ignorance, lack of confidence, or fear of reprisals on the part of the victims and their families. In New Bell and other nonmaximum-security penal detention centers, beatings are common and prisoners reportedly are chained or flogged at times in their cells. However, the authorities often administer beatings not in prison facilities, but in temporary detention areas in a police or gendarme facility. Two forms of physical abuse commonly reported to be inflicted on detainees include the "bastinade," in which the victim is beaten on the soles of the feet, and the "balancoire," in which the victim, with his hands tied behind his back, is hung from a rod and beaten, often on the genitals. Nonviolent political activists often have been subjected to such punitive physical abuse during brief detentions following roundups of participants in antigovernment demonstrations or opposition party political rallies. In the vast majority of cases of torture or abuse, the Government rarely investigated or punished any of the security officials involved.

Security forces subjected prisoners and detainees to degrading treatment that includes stripping, confinement in severely overcrowded cells, and denial of access to toilets or other sanitation facilities. Police and gendarmes often beat detainees to extract confessions and the names and whereabouts of alleged criminals. In his report, U.N. Special Rapporteur Rodley noted that the Government increasingly was moving toward punishing offenders, but that "some of those incriminated act out of ignorance and others out of pure habit, for they have regularly acted that way for a long time without fear of any consequences." Pretrial detainees sometimes were required, under threat of abuse, to pay so-called "cell fees," essentially a bribe to the prison guards to prevent further abuse. There were reports of disappearances of persons in the custody of security forces. Some disappearances may be attributed to summary executions by security forces in Douala or the northern regions; in these instances, bodies rarely are found, although the suspects are presumed dead.

The Constitution prohibits such actions; however, these rights are subject to the "higher interests of the State," and there were a number of credible reports that police and gendarmes harassed citizens, conducted searches without warrants, and opened or seized mail. The Government has continued to keep some opposition activists and dissidents under surveillance. Police sometimes punished family members and neighbors of criminal suspects. An administrative authority may authorize police to conduct neighborhood sweeps in search of suspected criminals or stolen or illegal goods without individual warrants. Such sweeps were conducted frequently. During the year 2000, as in the previous year, sweeps involving forced entry into homes occurred in Yaounde and Douala. An increase in crime during the year led to a dramatic increase in the number of such sweeps, called "kali-kali" or "raffles," in Douala and Yaounde. Typically, security forces seal off a neighborhood, systematically search homes, arrest persons arbitrarily, and seize suspicious or illegal articles. There were credible reports that security forces used these sweeps as a pretext to loot homes and arbitrarily arrest persons for minor offenses, such as not possessing identity cards. In a June 2000 letter to government officials, the Catholic Archbishop of Douala stated that security forces arrested some parents during these operations, forcing them to leave babies or sick children alone at home.

The law provides for these rights; however, in practice government security forces routinely impeded domestic travel. Police frequently stopped travelers to check identification documents, vehicle registrations, and tax receipts as security and immigration control measures. Police commonly demanded bribes from citizens whom they stopped at roadblocks or at other points. Security forces frequently used roadblocks to exact bribes or thwart opposition political activities. Roadblocks and checkpoints manned by security forces have proliferated in cities and most highways and make road travel both time-consuming and costly, since extortion of small bribes was commonplace at these checkpoints. In past years, violent and sometimes fatal confrontations have occurred repeatedly at such checkpoints when travelers would not or could not pay the bribes demanded by the security forces. There have been credible reports that police arrested and beat individuals who failed to carry their identification cards.

The law prohibits arbitrary arrest and detention and requires an arrest warrant, except when the criminal is caught in the act; however, security forces continued to arrest and detain citizens arbitrarily. The law also stipulates that detainees must be brought promptly before a magistrate; however, arbitrary, prolonged detention remained a serious problem, since security forces often failed to bring detainees promptly before a magistrate and sometimes held them incommunicado for months or even years. Police legally may detain a person in custody in connection with a common crime for up to 24 hours, renewable three times, before bringing charges. The law provides for the right to a judicial review of the legality of detention only in the two Anglophone provinces. Elsewhere, the French legal tradition applies, precluding judicial authorities from acting on a case until the administrative authority that ordered the detention turns the case over to the prosecutor. After a magistrate has issued a warrant to bring the case to trial, he may hold the detainee in administrative or "pretrial detention" indefinitely, pending court action. Such detention often is prolonged, due to the understaffed and mismanaged court system. According to U.N. Special Rapporteur Rodley, 80 percent of the prison population consists of untried prisoners. Rodley wrote that the length of pretrial detention, often stretching as long as 7 years, makes it "inhuman in itself." In addition Rodley claimed that "pretrial detention is used not to attain its primary goal of upholding order and security and facilitating investigation, but rather, in the perception both of the public and of the forces of law and order, as a sanction." Furthermore, the law permits detention without charge by administrative authorities for renewable periods of 15 days, ostensibly in order to combat banditry and maintain public order. Persons taken into detention frequently are denied access to both legal counsel and family members. The law permits release on bail only in the Anglophone provinces, where the legal system includes features of British common law; however, bail is granted infrequently in those provinces. There have been reports that security forces, including the Operational Command, detained persons at specific sites where they tortured and beat detainees. Government officials and security forces continue to use arbitrary arrest to harass and intimidate members of opposition parties and other critics of the Government.

The court system includes the Supreme Court, a Court of Appeals in each of the 10 provinces, and courts of first instance in each of the country's 58 divisions. Military tribunals may exercise jurisdiction over civilians not only when the President declares martial law, but also in cases involving civil unrest or organized armed violence. Military tribunals also have jurisdiction over gang crimes, grand banditry, and highway robbery. The Government apparently interprets these guidelines quite broadly and sometimes uses military courts to try matters concerning dissident groups and political opponents.

The judiciary remained corrupt, inefficient, and subject to political influence. The Constitution provides for an independent judiciary; however, the judiciary remained highly subject to political influence and corruption. The court system has remained technically part of the executive branch, subordinate to the Ministry of Justice. The Constitution specifies that the President is the guarantor of the legal system's independence. He also appoints judges with the advice of the Supreme Council of the Magistrature. However, the judiciary showed some modest signs of growing independence. Since 1997 the courts repeatedly have used powers given them under the 1996 press law to order the Ministry of Territorial Administration to desist from seizing print runs of newspapers critical of the Government. Some politically sensitive cases never are heard by the courts. Corruption and inefficiency in the courts have been serious problems. Justice frequently is delayed or denied before reaching the trial stage. Political bias often brings trials to a halt or results in an extremely long process, punctuated by extended court recesses. Powerful political or business interests appear to enjoy virtual immunity from prosecution; some politically sensitive cases are settled with a payoff and thus never were heard. Private journalists, political opponents, and critics of the Government often are charged or held and sometimes jailed under libel statutes considered by observers as unduly restrictive of press freedom. Prisoners may be detained indefinitely during pretrial proceedings.

In 1998, the total number of persons in penal institutions in Cameroon was 15,903, yielding a rate of 115 per 100,000 population. If this figure is accurate, Cameroon has a moderate rate of imprisonment for Africa. However, the study of overcrowded conditions in Cameroon prisons suggests that these figures may be an underestimate. Conditions remained harsh and life threatening in almost all prisons. Prisons are seriously overcrowded, unsanitary, and inadequate, especially outside major urban areas. Serious deficiencies in food, health care, and sanitation due to a lack of funds are common in almost all prisons, including in "private prisons" in the north operated by traditional rulers. U.N. Special Rapporteur Rodley described prison conditions in the country as "universally appalling." Rodley also reported that "overcrowding, unhygienic sanitation, lack of health care, and shortage of food, reportedly are the main failings in the Cameroonian prison system. These conditions cannot be blamed only on lack of financial or material resources, but also result from deliberate policies or serious neglect on the part of the relevant officials." Rodley wrote that these conditions are "endangering the health and even the lives of the detainees." Prisoners are kept in dilapidated colonial-era prisons, where the number of detainees is four to five times the original capacity. Authorities confirmed to Rodley that 1 cell measuring 6 square meters housed 16 persons; 1 prisoner stated that the cell sometimes held up to 23 persons. Health and medical care almost are nonexistent, and prisoners' families are expected to provide food for their relatives in prison. Prison officials torture, beat, and otherwise abuse prisoners. Rodley reported that the vast majority of those in detention had been tortured or abused. Rodley specified cases of machete beatings, toenails being ripped out, and police shootings of victims who had received no medical attention. Prisoners routinely die due to harsh prison conditions and inadequate medical treatment. In Douala's New Bell Prison, there were only 7 water taps for a reported 3,500 prisoners; this contributed to poor hygiene, illness, and deaths. In New Bell and other nonmaximum-security penal detention centers, families are permitted to provide food and medicine to inmates; however, beatings are common. Prisoners reportedly are chained or flogged at times in their cells and often are denied adequate medical care. In April 2000, the Minister of Territorial Administration and the Secretary of State for Territorial Administration in charge of penitentiary administration visited Douala and Yaounde prisons. The Yaounde prison was found to be so dirty that the Minister ordered the immediate release of funds for repainting. In Douala the Minister said that the prison would be improved with funding from a foreign government; however, the project had not been implemented fully by year's end.

Credible press reports indicate that Douala's New Bell prison, originally built for 600 inmates, held more than 3,500 during the year, of which 2,000 were pretrial detainees. The prison in the Far North Province capital of Maroua also was overcrowded; more than 900 prisoners occupy a prison with a capacity of 300, and more than 700 are pretrial detainees, awaiting trial at the Provincial Court of Appeals, located in Maroua. A 1997 report on prison conditions indicated that Bertoua Prison, which was built to hold 50 inmates, housed more than 700 persons. The Kondengui Central Prison in Yaounde, constructed in 1967 to hold 1,500 inmates and equipped with only 16 toilets or showers and 400 beds, held approximately 3,600 inmates, including 700 women during the year. Some cells built for fifteen persons hold more than fifty. Prisoners reportedly have one meal per day and receive 4.4 ounces of soap every 6 months. In 1999 the government official in charge of prisons said that the Central Prison of Bafoussam, built for 320 inmates, held 3,140 persons. Press reports indicate that the Bamenda Central Prison, built for 300 inmates, holds 900 persons, approximately 750 of whom are pretrial detainees. Overcrowding is exacerbated by the large number of long pretrial detentions and the practice of "Friday arrests." According to credible press reports, more than 1,400 of the inmates of the Douala prison were pretrial detainees, whereas only 900 were convicted prisoners.

Prisoners sometimes can buy special treatment up to and including their freedom; credible reports from Bafussam Central prison indicate that freedom between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. was available daily to any prisoner who could afford the superintendent's weekly fee of $20 (15,000 CFA francs). Prisoners in Bafussam reportedly used their free time to steal the next week's fees.

Juveniles and nonviolent prisoners often are incarcerated with adults, although not usually in the same cells. There are credible reports of sexual abuse of juvenile prisoners by adult inmates. Corruption among prison personnel is widespread. Persons awaiting trial routinely are held in cells with hardened criminals. There are few detention centers for women; women routinely are held in prison complexes with men, occasionally in the same cells. Mothers often are incarcerated with their children or babies. The U.N. Special Rapporteur on Torture reported that he saw at least one 14-year-old child being kept with adult offenders, one woman being held in the same cell as male prisoners, and one woman incarcerated with her 9-month-old child. Some high-profile prisoners are able to avoid some of the abuse that security forces routinely inflict on many common criminals. They are kept in elite wings of certain prisons, where they enjoy relatively lenient treatment.

The Government's National Commission on Human Rights and Freedoms (NCHRF) admitted in a February media interview that "some people are just forgotten in prison." In a March 12 press release, the Cameroon Organization for Citizens' Rights and Freedoms disclosed the results of an investigation that it conducted in the Yaounde Central Prison. According to those results, several persons who had completed their prison term or had been released by a court ruling still were in detention, including prisoners whose files have been lost and are not given a court date for this reason. One detainee had been in jail for 6 years without trial. The organization worked with the prosecutor's office to secure the release of approximately 100 of the most egregious cases. On January 29, the prisoners of the Yaounde Kondengui prison addressed a letter to the Minister of Justice and various newspapers in which they complained about their conditions. The letter indicated that of the 3,600 persons held in the prison, approximately 3,000 still were awaiting trial. The prisoners threatened to go on hunger strikes or riot.

In the north, the Government permits traditional Lamibe (chiefs) to detain persons outside the government penitentiary system, in effect in "private prisons." The places of detention in the palaces of the traditional chiefs of Rey Bouba, Gashiga, Bibemi, and Tcheboa have the reputation of seriously mistreating their inmates. Members of the National Union for Democracy and Progress (UNDP) party, which was an opposition party until late 1997, have alleged that other UNDP members have been detained in these private jails and that some have died from mistreatment.

Domestic violence against women is common. Women's rights advocates report that the law does not impose effective penalties against men who commit acts of domestic violence. There are no gender-specific assault laws, despite the fact that women were the predominant victims of domestic violence. Spousal abuse is not a legal ground for divorce. In cases of sexual assault, a victim's family or village often imposed direct, summary punishment on the suspected perpetrator through extralegal means ranging from destruction of property to beating. While there are no reliable statistics on violence against women, the large number of newspaper reports, which observers believe are a fraction of actual incidents, indicated that it is widespread.

Female genital mutilation (FGM), which has been condemned by international health experts as damaging to both physical and psychological health, is not practiced widely, but it is traditional and continues to be practiced in some areas of Far North and Southwest Provinces. It includes the most severe form of the abuse, infibulation, and usually is practiced on preadolescent girls. The Government has criticized the practice; however, no law prohibits FGM.

Polygyny is permitted by law and tradition, but polyandry is not. In cases of divorce, the husband's wishes determine the custody of children over the age of 6. While a man may be convicted of adultery only if the sexual act takes place in his home, a female may be convicted without respect to venue.

Cameroon law defines a juvenile as a "human being below the age of eighteen years unless, under the law applicable to the child, majority is attained earlier" (Article 1 Convention on the Rights of the Child). Regarding decency/morality, the Code prescribes that sex with a person under 16 years old is felony rape, with the penalty increasing if violence is used. The crime of moral danger is committed when an adult allows a person under the age of 18 for whom he/she has legal custody to work or reside in an establishment where prostitution is practiced. Further, the law punishes a woman who procures or consents to an abortion. In the case of the murder of a juvenile, the murder becomes aggravated when a victim is less than 15 years old; this warrants the death penalty. There are also protections against forced marriages, in that persons under the age of 18 may not be compelled to marry.

The degree of familial child abuse was not known but is one of several targeted problems of children's rights organizations. During a crime wave in the country's largest cities of Yaounde and Douala, newspaper reports often cited children as victims of kidnaping, mutilation, and even infanticide. There were several credible stories of mothers (usually young, unemployed, and unmarried) abandoning newborns in streets, garbage cans, and pit toilets. The Yaounde-based Center for Helpless Children, created by the Minister of Social Affairs in 1997, currently harbored 24 abandoned or abused children, a small fraction of the suspected cases of abused, abandoned, or neglected children.

As mentioned above, reports have also indicated an alarming trend in the country's prisons of incarcerating juvenile offenders with adult prisoners, occasionally in the same cells or wards. There are credible reports of sexual abuse of juvenile prisoners by adult inmates. The law specifies that children should not be detained without trial beyond 3 months after an investigation, but the Government detained children for longer periods of time. In June press sources indicated that between 34 and 38 children are detained in the Douala New Bell Prison. Some children (particularly infants) are jailed with their detained mothers.

FGM is performed primarily on young girls.

There have been reports of forced child labor, child prostitution, and trafficking in children.

The law provides that any person who engages in any trafficking in persons shall be punished with imprisonment of between 10 and 20 years, and that the court may also impose a forfeiture penalty. Trafficking is a problem, and the country is a source, transit, and destination point for internationally trafficked persons; trafficking also occurs within the country. An International Labor Organization (ILO) report in 2000 pinpointed trafficking in children as especially serious. Children are trafficked from and through the country to other West African countries for indentured or domestic servitude, farm labor, and sexual exploitation. In 2000 the Government signed, but has not yet ratified, the U.N.-sponsored protocol concerning trafficking in persons.

An ILO study conducted in March and April 2000 in Yaounde, Douala, and Bamenda, revealed that trafficking accounted for 84 percent, or approximately 530,000, of an estimated 610,000 child laborers. In most cases, intermediaries presented themselves as businessmen, approaching parents with large families or custodians of orphans and promising to assist the child with education or training. The intermediary paid parents an average of $8 (6,000 CFA francs) before taking the child, transporting the child to the city where the intermediary would subject the child to forced work for remuneration, which was far below the minimum wage level. In 4 out of 10 cases, the child was a foreigner transported to the country for labor. The report also indicated that the country is a transit country for regional traffickers as well, transporting children between Nigeria, Benin, Niger, Chad, Togo, the Republic of the Congo, and the Central African Republic.

While there has been no study on trafficking in persons besides children, anecdotal evidence from the NCHRF indicates that there also may be some trafficking in adults, primarily women, as well.

Cameroon is not only used by drug traffickers as a transit country, but was also a drug-consuming country. Both males and females of all age groups use drugs in Cameroon. Such drugs include traditional drugs, as well as imported cocaine and heroin. The most frequently used drug is cannabis, followed by arnphetamine-type tablets, as well as a wide range of pharmaceuticals. Street children in northern Cameroon are involved in using solvents.

Contributed by Maria Del Carmen Garcia