Amnesty calls for immediate release of 84 Cameroonian children

An international human rights group demanded Friday the release of 84 Cameroonian children detained illegally for the last six months after the security forces raided their Koranic schools.

Most of the children are under 15 years old, with some as young as five.

"On December 20, 2014, Cameroonian security forces raided a series of schools in a town called Guirvidig, arresting 84 children and 43 men -- including many teachers," Amnesty International said in a statement.

They have been held in a centre in Maroua in northern Cameroon, with the UN children's agency providing mattresses and the World Food Programme sending food. But supplies are running low, Amnesty said.

"It is unthinkable to keep children so young away from their parents for so long, and with so little support," said Steve Cockburn, Amnesty International deputy regional director for West and Central Africa.

Northern Cameroon is particularly vulnerable to attacks by Islamist group Boko Haram, which the UN has accused of kidnapping more than 1,000 Cameroonian children, using many as human shields.

The violent Boko Haram insurrection in the region has killed more than 15,000 people since 2009.

Local authorities claimed that the schools were recruiting centres for the Islamist militants, but Cockburn said that raiding schools will do nothing to help the region.

"Detaining young children will do nothing to protect Cameroonians living under the threat of Boko Haram," he said.

According to the statement, witnesses said the boys and their teachers were rounded up by security forces and the army, and made to wait in the square before being forced to board trucks.

Security forces also ransacked homes in the area, demanding bribes, the witnesses added.

Some parents were able to pay off authorities to release their sons.

The organisation called for the immediate release of all children under 15 years of age, and for those over 15 to be released unless an "internationally recognised charge" is brought against them.

Cameroon, along with Nigeria, Chad, Benin and Niger, has joined a regional military task force that seeks to crush Boko Haram.