Southern Cameroons Uprising: 7 journalists in police drag net ¹

Ever since the Southern Cameroons crisis started in November 2016, seven Anglophone journalists have been arrested. Six are still in detention and one was miraculously released on bail.  Many news men and women have reportedly abandoned the profession and escaped from the territory. Others are in hiding and no longer feeling secure to carry out their duties. The government has also shut down internet services in the Anglophone regions of the country.

Those arrested and still in detention include, Atia Tilarious, Amos Fofung, Thomas Awah, Tim Finian, Mofor Ndong, Achomba Hans. Only BBC’s Randy Joe Sa’a is out on bail. The National Communication Council, NCC has systematically shut down all Anglophone media houses covering the crisis.

The Biya Francophone regime has crackdown on pro Southern Cameroons media establishments preventing journalists from reporting the numerous rapes and extra judicial killings going on in West Cameroon.  Security forces loyal to the Yaoundé government have tortured many reporters and columnists and detaining some under inhuman conditions.

The regime has also placed the families of the detained journalists under Secret Service surveillance making life difficult for their respective children and wives who are currently being avoided by close friends and relatives for fear of being a target. The so-called Cameroon Minister of Communication and government spokesman, Issa Tchiroma has maintained a kind of deliberate silence on the attack on press freedom.