On 1 April 2010, Alkarama sent urgent appeals to the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD) and the Special Rapporteur on torture. Alkarama also informed the Committee against Torture (CAT) about the Cameroonians' situation in the context of Yemen's periodic review in November 2009.

In its final report, published on 19 November 2010, the CAT mentioned the Cameroonians' case and advised Yemen to "take all appropriate measures to end their secret detention and either release the prisoners or give them a fair trial." The Yemeni government was also asked to "reveal the location and amount of all secret detention facilities managed by the Political Security forces and other security forces as well as the number of detainees under their authority."

The CAT also requested that the Yemeni should provide up-to-date information on the situation of the four Cameroonian nationals: Mouafo Ludo, Pengou Pierpe, Mechoup Baudelaire and Ouafo Zacharie.

Ex-detainee contacts Alkarama

Following their release in late November 2010, they were handed over to the International Red Cross, which accompanied them on flight to Yaoundé, the Cameroonian capital. The plane tickets were paid for by families of the victims.

Shortly after their return, Alkarama contacted Mouafo Ludo who provided information regarding the conditions and details of his detention.

According to his testimony, directly after his arrest, he was placed in a 2m2 cell in the underbelly of the Political Security Detention center in Sanaa.

During the first few months of his detention he was regularly beaten, deprived of daylight and received only one meal and a single litre of water per day.

A year later, four other Cameroonians were added to his cell.

None of the five detainees had ever set foot in a Yemeni courtroom nor were they allowed to contact their embassy, gain access to a lawyer or call their families.

News of their detention is leaked

Some ten years later, they were luckily able to pass a message through one of the detention center's guards, who gave the note to a prisoner who was about to be released.

After his release, the ex-detainee then contacted "Hood" (a Yemeni human rights organisation), who would take up the case on their behalf.

"Hood" lobbied for the Cameroonians' with Yemeni MP Sakhr Ahmed Al-Wajih and on 17 September 2005, during a parliamentary session, MP Al-Wajih, raised their case with the Minister of Interior, Rachad Al-Alimi - who then publicly confirmed the Cameroonians' detention.

Following a public debate regarding the issue, the Cameroonians' prison conditions began to degenerate.

They were electrocuted and hanged by their wrists for two days, during which time Mouafo Ludo fell into a coma that lasted for four days. The torture would continue throughout the month.

Detainees moved out of underground cell

It was only in 2006, that the Cameroonian detainees came into contact, for the first time, with other political security prisoners. They were transferred from their underground cell to the ground floor where they would spend the next four years before their release.

According to the victims, the fifth Cameroonian, Donatien Koagne passed away sometime between December 2009 and January 2010 after being transferred from his cell to Sanaa general hospital.

None of the victims ever appeared in court and their detention was never officially recognized. They were released only after pressure was exerted by the UN human rights mechanisms. Till this day, they have received no compensation for their detention and no investigation has been conducted to uncover the circumstances of their arrest and detention.

Alkarama welcomes news of their release, but remains concerned by the arbitrary detention of hundreds of people in Yemen, among whom many are being held incommunicado.

It is worth mentioning that the Human Rights Committee will be examining Yemen in 2011. Alkarama plans on taking part in the process by providing useful information and submitting a shadow report.