28, August 2024
Yaoundé: Missing activist found in jail with signs of torture 0
A Cameroonian social media activist and government critic who disappeared last month has been located in a security cell of the military court in Yaoundé, Cameroon’s capital, with signs of torture, Human Rights Watch said Tuesday.
His lawyers believe the activist, known as Steve Akam, was extrajudicially returned to Cameroon from Gabon, where he had been living for the past decade. They gained access to him in custody in Yaoundé and found him partially paralysed with severe visual impairments, the international rights group said.
Akam, an outspoken critic of President Paul Biya’s administration, was last seen in a video circulated online that showed him handcuffed and surrounded by Cameroonian police near the border with Gabon.
He is better known by his social media profile Ramon Cotta on TikTok, which has over 30,000 followers. In a recent video, he accuses Biya of pursuing a war in Cameroon’s anglophone regions in order to remain in power.
Ilaria Allegrozzi, senior Sahel researcher at Human Rights Watch, said Akam “may already have lost his sight and ability to walk properly as a result of torture, so prompt action is immediately needed”.
She called on Cameroon to provide medical treatment and investigate the signs of torture. Cameroon’s government did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Source: Reuters




















28, August 2024
Buea: Deadly attack on police officers an “act that violates human life”: Bishop Bibi 0
The Catholic Bishop of Buea Diocese in Cameroon has “strongly” condemned the killing of police officers in the country’s Southwest region following an attack on their security post located in his Episcopal See.
In a statement shared with ACI Africa on Monday, August 26, Bishop Michael Miabesue Bibi weighs in on the August 24 attack that reportedly resulted in the death of three police officers and injury of others; he appeals for peace in the troubled regions of the Central African nation.
“On Saturday, August 24, 2024, three policemen were killed by unidentified gunmen at Bwitingi, a locality in Buea Subdivision, Fako Division of the Southwest Region of Cameroon, Diocese of Buea,” Bishop Bibi says.
He adds, “From my visit to the site of the incident, three police officers on duty were killed in an attack which occurred around 10:30 P.M. The makeshift police post where the attack happened was established as a measure to protect civilians in the context of the ongoing armed conflict in the North-West and South West regions of Cameroon.”
“I strongly condemn any act that violates human life and pray for the conversion of the perpetrators of violence in our midst and for a return to peace and stability,” the Cameroonian Catholic Bishop says.
He continues, “The Church remains close to the families, friends, and relatives of the deceased. We equally pray for the eternal repose of the souls of the victims of this attack.”
“Every time we hear of killings in the context of the ongoing crisis, we are reminded that if we do not abandon the path of violence and seek the path of peace, violence will definitely continue to inflict pain, hurt, and trauma on us all,” he said.
The Catholic Church leader, who has been at the helm of Buea Diocese since December 2019, first as Apostolic Administrator, and since February 2021, as the Local Ordinary adds, “As Christians and people of goodwill, we must always remember the commandment of God: Thou shall not kill.”
Cameroon’s English-speaking regions plunged into conflict in 2016 after a protest by lawyers and teachers turned violent.
An armed movement of separatists claiming independence for the so-called republic of Ambazonia emerged following the government’s crackdown on protesters.
School boycotts have become common in these areas, as have enforced moratoriums on public life, resulting in what is known as “ghost towns”.
In his August 25 statement, Bishop Bibi reflects on the ongoing crisis, emphasizing the value of giving peace a chance.
“The integral development of our country requires peace. This peace that we seek as Christians is true peace. Peace which is not limited to maintaining a balance of powers between adversaries,” he says.
The Catholic Church leader who started his Episcopal Ministry as Auxiliary Bishop of Cameroon’s Bamenda Archdiocese in March 2017 explains that “peace cannot be attained on earth without safeguarding the goods of persons, free communication among men, respect for the dignity of persons and peoples, and the assiduous practice of fraternity. Peace is the tranquillity of order. Peace is the work of justice and the effect of charity.”
He appeals to the people of God under his pastoral care “to pray for a speedy return to peace in the North West and South West Regions of Cameroon, the peaceful repose of the souls of the departed victims of Saturday’s incident, and for stakeholders of the crisis to seek peaceful means to sustainable peace.”
Source: aciafrica