AI urges release of detained Cameroon activists --[Reported by Umva mag]

The Cameroonian authorities must immediately release three supporters of the Cameroon People Power association (PPC) and their relatives who have been arbitrarily arrested and detained for two weeks in Garoua, Cameroon, and put an end to arbitrary arrests and detentions in the country, Amnesty International said today.

On 9 September, three PPC supporters, Moustapha Tizi, Mohamadou Ballo and Ibrahim Oumarou, were reportedly arrested in the town of Figuil, in the Mayo-Louti department of the northern region, for wearing T shirts bearing the name of the organisation. Hapsatou Issa, the sister of a PPC spokesperson, was also arrested on the same day. The PPC, a youth organization founded in August 2024, calls for regime change, Amnesty said.

“With one year to go before the presidential elections in which President Paul Biya, in power since 1982, plans to stand, arbitrary arrests and detentions of people perceived as critical of the regime are multiplying. The visit to Cameroon in early August by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, who expressed ‘serious concern about restrictions on freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly’, has not altered this trend,” said Fabien Offner, researcher at Amnesty International’s West and Central Africa Regional Office, in a note received by APA on Thursday.

Relatives of PPC supporters also detained

 According to the human rights organisation, Moustapha Tizi, Mohamadou Ballo, Ibrahim Oumarou and Hapsatou Issa were transferred to Garoua on September 13. According to information received by Amnesty International, Hapsatou Issa is currently being held at the Northern Regional Gendarmerie Legion, Moustapha Tizi and Mohamadou Ballo at the Garoua 1 Gendarmerie Investigation Brigade, and Ibrahim Oumarou at the Garoua Judicial Police.

Hapsatou Issa was arrested at her home on the night of September 9-10. According to her family, she was told that she was arrested because she is the sister of a PPC spokesperson who is currently on the run after receiving threats. Hapsatou Issa’s son, who had come to visit his detained mother to bring her food, was also arrested and has since been detained at the Garoua 1 gendarmerie investigative brigade.

“In recent years, anyone who dares to criticize the authorities, whether a human rights defender, journalist, Anglophone activist or demonstrator, runs the risk of being arbitrarily arrested and detained, tortured and tried by military courts, in violation of the country’s international human rights obligations. Unfortunately, this trend is likely to increase in the run-up to the presidential elections,” said Fabien Offner.

The authorities must put an end to the growing repression of human rights, guarantee the human rights of all and respect the country’s international human rights obligations, in particular under the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Cameroon is a party,” he said.

Two activists arrested in recent months

 Cameroonian activist Yves Kibouy Bershu, known as Ramon Cotta, has also been arbitrarily detained since his arrest on July 19, 2024 in Gabon, where he was living. He was transferred to Cameroon on July 23 without any known legal or diplomatic process, according to his lawyers. He is being held in Yaoundé at the Ministry of Defense Central Criminal Investigation Department. He was not able to meet with his lawyers until a month after his arrest. They say he is charged with acts of terrorism, rebellion, financing terrorism, arms trafficking, and insulting the head of state and members of the government. The videos of Ramon Cotta posted on social networks and viewed by Amnesty International were mainly limited to criticism of the Cameroonian authorities and the Cameroonian Embassy in Gabon.

According to his lawyers, it is likely that Ramon Cotta has been subjected to torture and other ill-treatment, resulting in partial paralysis, and that he has had difficulty accessing medical care. This would constitute a violation of the Nelson Mandela Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners.

Junior Ngombe, a 23-year-old hairdresser and activist, was arbitrarily detained from 24 to 31 July after denouncing the arrest of Ramon Cotta in a video that was viewed more than 218,000 times on TikTok.

TE/sf/lb/as/APA

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