However, the Mexican government has failed to cooperate with the families of the disappeared and to release requested documents that are known to exist.
Despite ongoing investigations and international pressure, the case remains unsolved almost a decade later. September 2024 will mark the tenth anniversary of the students’ disappearance. The ongoing international support shows solidarity with the families. It will also help ensure that the Mexican government under newly elected President Claudia Sheinbaum continues to provide resources for the investigation.
Take action: In the run-up to the tenth anniversary of the disappearance of the Ayotzinapa people, write a message to the Mexican authorities urging them to cooperate in releasing requested documents that are important to the investigation.
Cameroon: Over 130 men and boys
Since the start of the Boko Haram insurgency in Cameroon in early 2014, Amnesty International has documented details of specific cases of mass arrests, unlawful killings, excessive use of force, enforced disappearances, deaths and torture by state security forces. Cameroonian security forces arrested at least 1,000 people in the Far North region on suspicion of supporting Boko Haram. Mass cordons and searches included rounding up and arresting dozens, sometimes hundreds, of men and boys.
In the most serious cordon and search operation documented by Amnesty International to date, 35 eyewitnesses and a senior military source confirmed that at least 200 men and boys were arrested in the villages of Magdeme and Doublé on 27 December 2014. In the same operation, carried out jointly by the army, police and gendarmerie, at least eight people were killed, including a child, and over 70 buildings were burned down.
Image of state security agents arresting and detaining men suspected of links to Boko Haram. (Fahad Hashmi/Amnesty International)
The fate of most of those arrested in these two villages remains unknown. Ten years after the incident, it has not been possible to establish the identities of the dead, disclose the whereabouts of their bodies, or interview several key witnesses. At least 130 people remain missing and are believed to be victims of enforced disappearances. Some evidence suggests that even more people may have died in security force custody.
- Watch a video: 130 men and boys disappeared
- Get active
- Ask the Cameroonian Ambassador (Ambassador Henri Etoundi Essomba) in Washington DC: (email protected)
- Tweet with your account #AskBiya about more than 130 missing people in the Far North
- Ask Paul Biya (#AskBiya), President of Cameroon, on his X-account (@PR_Paul_Biya) what happened to the over 130 people
- Ask the Minister of Justice in Cameroon what happened to the more than 130 missing people: (email protected)
Eritrea: Ciham Ali
Ciham Ali was arrested in December 2012 while trying to cross the border from Eritrea into Sudan. She was 15 years old. Neither her family nor anyone else has heard from her since.
Born in Los Angeles to Eritrean parents, she and her family moved to Eritrea when her father, Ali Abdu Ahmed, began working for the government of President Isaias Afewerki, eventually becoming Minister of Information. Her father fell out with the regime in 2012 and fled into exile after an attempted military coup against the government.
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