This report is the result of a fact-finding mission carried out in Cameroon between March and October 2025 by the Cameroonian association Droits et Paix, the Network of Cameroonian Lawyers Against the Death Penalty (RACOPEM) and ECPM. The teams of investigators visited 10 prisons, met with 45 people on death row and 6 prison staff members.
The death penalty as a political tool since Independence
This report traces the key stages in the history of the death penalty in Cameroon, showing how, since independence, this punishment has been used as an instrument of political control and legitimisation.
Assessing trends in the use of the death penalty in Cameroon remains difficult due to the authorities’ marked lack of transparency on the issue. This opacity, which seems to reflect a resolve to maintain secrecy around death sentences, severely limits access to reliable data. During the examination of Cameroon’s state report at the 67th ordinary session of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights in 2023, the authorities nevertheless indicated that as of 31 October 2020, 120 people were sentenced to death, including 80 Cameroonian men, 36 foreign nationals and 4 women.58 According to a report by Droits et Paix and RACOPEM, 105 people are believed to be on death row in Cameroonian prisons by the end of 2025, including at least one woman.
The criminal justice system of Cameroon: a chain of black holes
From the moment of arrest through to the exhaustion of legal remedies, the criminal justice trajectory of those sentenced to death unfolds in a context where investigations are frequently conducted under duress, legal assistance remains largely illusory, challenging the charges is often impossible, and cases remain unaddressed for years. Some die in detention, having waited decades for legal remedies that never materialised.
The report examines in detail the structural failings of Cameroon’s criminal justice system, drawing on a number of testimonies and case studies documenting breaches of the right to a fair trial. [See p. 51 – 71]
Precarious and unfair detention conditions
“Here, if you have no money, you’re not entitled to anything.” Kelvin, sentenced to death in Buea.
There are no prisons specifically designated for individuals sentenced to death. Although the Cameroonian authorities provide no official data on where such people are held, civil society estimates they are scattered across approximately 5092 of the country’s 76 prison facilities. During visits to ten prisons in both French- and English speaking areas, the fact-finding mission was able to confirm the presence of people sentenced to death in eight of them.
In these prisons, overcrowding, unsanitary conditions, food shortages and very limited access to healthcare – including psychiatric care – create an environment where suffering becomes a daily experience, marked by depletion, distress and abandonment. The testimonies gathered from people sentenced to death reveal constant fear, persistent physical and mental harm, and a widely shared feeling of having been forgotten by the state.
About Droits & Paix
Droits et Paix (Rights and Peace) is a Cameroonian association founded in 2005 that works for the respect, promotion and protection of fundamental human rights and freedoms; the promotion of a culture of peace; and the humanisation and improvement of prison conditions. In particular, it lobbies for the abolition of the death penalty, fights against torture, promotes and popularises human rights, and provides legal assistance to detainees.
About RACOPEM
Droits et Paix was behind the creation of the Cameroonian Network of Lawyers Against the Death Penalty (RACOPEM) and the Cameroonian Coalition Against the Death Penalty. Droits et Paix and ECPM prepared and published a fact-finding mission on the conditions of detention on Cameroon’s death row in 2019, the first of its kind in Cameroon.
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