The ruling, delivered on Thursday, marks one of the few instances in which members of the country’s security forces have been convicted for abuses committed during the prolonged Anglophone conflict.

According to the victims’ legal team, Gendarme Haranga Gilbert received 10 years in prison, Sergeant Baba Guida eight years, and Corporal Sanding Sanding five years, after the court found them guilty of participating in a joint operation with an allied ethnic militia on February 14, 2020. 

Human rights organizations documented that the attack killed "at least” 21 civilians—among them 13 children and a pregnant woman—contradicting the government’s early claims that the deaths resulted from an accidental explosion during clashes with separatist fighters.

Survivor accounts, independent investigations, and satellite imagery later undercut the official narrative, prompting authorities to launch a judicial inquiry that established state involvement and an attempted cover-up, including the burning of homes to conceal evidence. Prosecutors subsequently opened criminal proceedings, though observers noted at the time that such accountability was uncommon in Cameroon’s security-related cases.

Lawyers for the victims welcomed the convictions while stressing that they address only a single episode in a conflict marked by widespread allegations of abuses by both government forces and armed separatists. The crisis began in 2016 after security forces violently suppressed peaceful demonstrations by English-speaking communities under President Paul Biya, triggering nearly a decade of fighting that has killed thousands and displaced more than a million people.

Rights groups are urging authorities to expand investigations to other incidents and to establish mechanisms ensuring impartial accountability across all parties to the conflict.