The government of Cameroonian President Paul Biya has come under intense pressure to address human rights violations.
And some 51 key figures in Cameroon, including lawyers, political leaders and human rights activists say President Biya should respond to concerns that some State operatives have discarded the law in their duties.
They raised the matter in an open letter to the President on Wednesday November 6. They include Edith Kah Walla, the first woman to run for office of the president in the country, and lawyer Akere Muna, the 2018 presidential candidate and candidate of an opposition coalition for the upcoming presidential election.
Biya, the world’s oldest president and Africa’s second longest-serving head of State, marked 42 years in power on November 6, with supporters at various rallies across the country urging the ageing leader to run for re-election when the country holds presidential elections next year.
This is despite concerns about the 91-year-old’s mental and physical ability to continue governing effectively.
The open letter, entitled ‘Initiative Against Acts of Torture in Cameroon’, calls on Biya to “take all measures to effectively put an end to acts of torture and grievous human rights violations in Cameroon”.
It comes as Cameroon goes before the United Nations Committee against Torture in Geneva on November 13. The Committee monitors States parties’ adherence to the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.
Cameroon is among six countries undergoing the routine review at the ongoing session that started on October 28 and the stakes for the country at the session are high, including reintegration into the US trade pact under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa) and other economic and development programmes.
Cameroon was removed from the US trade preference programme in January 2020 due to “persistent human rights violations” by the Biya regime.
Washington said at the time that Cameroon had failed to address concerns regarding persistent human rights violations being committed by security forces, including extrajudicial killings, arbitrary and unlawful detention and torture, including in the Anglophone northwest and southwest regions.
The separatists want to create an independent English-speaking country which they call ‘Ambazonia’, made up of two semi-autonomous administrative regions.
Felix Nkongho Agbor Balla, a lawyer and president of the Centre for Human Rights and Democracy in Africa (CHRDA), which has been documenting cases of human rights violations and abuses in the English-speaking regions, said Cameroon was using the abduction of citizens as a cover for arrests.
“Cameroonian armed forces arrest citizens and deprive them of their fundamental liberty without warrant or investigation. Citizens are held incommunicado for days, weeks and months and deprived of their right to legal assistance and defence,” said Agbor Balla, one of the signatories of the letter. He described the situation as “literal kidnapping of citizens by their state”.
Rights groups, including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, have also accused Cameroonian armed forces of gross human rights violations in the regions. Non-State armed groups in the region have also been indicted for same.
In a June 2023 report, Amnesty International said it had documented crimes under national law and human rights violations committed by Cameroon defence and security forces, militias and armed separatists in the region in recent years.
Cameroon has a chronic history of torture and gross violations of internationally recognised human rights, according to Kah Walla, who also signed the letter.
She said she was motivated by the fact that the number of cases of torture, illegal and arbitrary arrests, enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings in Cameroon is spreading across the different regions of the country and over time.
In a recent case last month, a video showing the torture of renowned Cameroonian musician Simon Longkana Agno, who is popularly known as Longuè Longuè, sparked outrage in the country.
The famous artiste, who uses his songs to denounce bad governance, colonialism and other social ills plaguing the country, said the viral video was filmed in 2019 but was being made public for the first time.
In the video that has attracted an avalanche of condemnation from within and beyond the country, Longuè Longuè is seen sitting on a tiled floor in his underwear with his hands cuffed behind his back as men in civilian clothes strike him on the soles of his feet with a flat machete.
Despite tears and desperate pleas for mercy from the helpless musician, the men, identified by Longuè Longuè as security agents from the Littoral Military Security Branch in Douala, continue to inflict pain.
Cameroon’s defence ministry said an investigation had been opened following what it called an “unfortunate incident”, and promised that, “more light will be shed and responsibilities established”, although critics say the results of such probes are rarely revealed to the public.
The signatories of the letter to Biya say such unfathomable acts of inhuman treatment of citizens highlight the continued use of torture, which Kah Walla says is a systemic problem in Cameroon.
The 59-year-old said the Biya regime's use of violence in its police and judicial systems keeps the population in a state of fear. “This fear is one of the instruments that is used to keep the Biya regime in power for 42 years”, Kah Walla told The EastAfrican saying it was important it stops.
“This is a red line, we must stop torture in Cameroon. Every Cameroonian should feel safe in Cameroon. Every Cameroonian should feel they have rights. Every Cameroonian should feel absolutely free in this country. Even if they commit a crime, they should feel that it will be dealt with within the legal framework of the country,” said Kah Walla.
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