Opposition coalitions, irreverent language against institutions and discussing the President's health are banned; Long list of arbitrary arrests of activists and journalists

INTRODUCTION

The separatist conflict continues in the Southwest and Northwest Regions of Cameroon. Clashes between armed groups and government forces continued to impact civilians severely, with cases of unlawful killings, abductions, and raids on villages. Forced displacement caused by the two conflicts in the border regions (Boko Haram and the Islamic State in the North and the Anglophone crisis in the Southwest and Northwest) results in the displacement of almost 1.3 million people. Local and international human rights organisations have called on the Cameroonian authorities to hold all perpetrators accountable and guarantee the right to a fair trial and access to justice.

This update details the restrictions brought to civic space during the last year. Political space is also constrained in the run-up to the elections in 2025 and 2026:

On 8th March 2024, artist and member of the National Union for Democracy and Progress (Union nationale pour la démocratie et le progrès) Aboubacar Siddiki, known as Babadjo, was arrested on the governor’s orders at his home in the city of N’Gaoundéré, after he criticized the governor of the Adamawa region on a WhatsApp group. The Union nationale pour la démocratie et le progrès, the party of which Babadjo is a member, is part of the governing majority. Babadjo served a three-month sentence for insulting a public official. Moments after his release, as he stepped out of the prison, he was rearrested on charges of disturbing public order, demonstration, and hate speech. Babadjo’s lawyer told Human Rights Watch that these charges are based on claims by the Cameroonian intelligence service that Babadjo’s supporters were planning to demonstrate to celebrate his release.

On 12th March 2024, the Minister of Territorial Administration, Paul Atanga Nji, said in a statement that two opposition coalitions - the Political Alliance for Change (Alliance politique pour le changement, APC), led by Jean-Michel Nintcheu, and the Political Alliance for Transition in Cameroon (Alliance politique pour la transition, APT), led by Olivier Bile - are “illegal,” calling them “clandestine movements.” In addition, according to the Minister, these movements’ leaders have met with terrorists in the Northwest and Southwest. Nji explains in the press release that these coalitions are not political parties and therefore cannot carry out any political activity.

Human Rights Watch denounced this move as further closing down space for the opposition and for public debate ahead of the 2025 presidential elections. The APC was set up as a coalition in December 2023 during a congress of the leading opposition party Movement for the Renaissance of Cameroon (MRC), which backed Maurice Kamto for president in the 2018 ballot. Kamto came second and challenged the official results of the election. A human rights activist and lawyer for the MRC, Emmanuel Simh, noted that this decision to ban a group willing to participate in the democratic process “is not based on any legal texts.” Journalist and television commentator Fah Elvis Tayong, also a member of the Movement for the Renaissance of Cameroon, was arrested on 5th September 2024, according to information from Mimi Mefo Infos. According to Joseph Weno, manager of the Buea-based Dash FM station, about six police officers loaded Fah Elvis into their vehicle without providing any explanation as to why he was being arrested. Fah had severely criticised the country’s system of governance in My Media Prime TV.

On 9th July 2024, Cameroon’s national assembly modified the electoral calendar, extending its members’ term in office until March 2026 and postponing parliamentary elections scheduled for February 2025; a move opposition parties argue will make it harder for them to succeed in the presidential elections, which are still scheduled to take place in 2025. Paul Biya, 91, is currently serving his seventh term, having come to power in 1982.

On 7th August 2024, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk briefly visited Cameroon. He noted the multiple complex human rights challenges the country faces and stressed the key opportunity that the 2025 and 2026 elections represent to “reinforce political inclusiveness and facilitate the participation of all segments of society, including young people, women, populations in conflict-affected areas, displaced people and people with disabilities” and specifically asked for a commitment to “ensuring the rights to freedom of expression and of peaceful assembly” in the context of the upcoming elections.

This call seems not to have been heard by authorities as arbitrary arrests and detention of people perceived as critical of the regime have multiplied ahead of the two next election years. Meanwhile, freedom of expression continues to be curtailed and journalists face risks.

The latest political development has been the long absence of the President. The President left the country at the beginning of September 2024 after not having been seen in public for more than a month, sparking speculation that he might have died. In October 2024, authorities issued a ban to outlaw any discussion about his health. On 21st October 2024, the president returned after spending close to 50 days outside Cameroon. Biya’s return was broadcast live on state television. There was a large military presence in the capital. The military said government troops were deployed to maintain peace and order.

UPR review

Ahead of Cameroon’s Universal Periodic Review at the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) on 14th November 2023, civil society organisations made several recommendations pertaining to civic space.

The American Bar Association Center for Human Rights, the Committee to Protect Journalists, and Freedom House recommended the abolition of the National Communication Council media regulator and the establishment of a new independent broadcast regulator with narrowly defined powers that would operate without interference. These three organisations also demanded an end to incommunicado holding and lengthy pre-trial detention of journalists and the abolition of detention without trial.

The Human Rights Foundation advised that laws be amended to ensure that vaguely worded and ambiguous clauses relating to terrorism and spreading false news are clearly defined or removed, so they cannot be applied in an arbitrary manner to stifle legitimate and peaceful dissent. Various organisations, such as FIACAT and ACAT, also pointed at the restrictive Anti-Terrorism Act (No. 2014/028) and the grounds of disturbance of public order, both used to ban peaceful demonstrations.

Regarding freedom of assembly, the Cameroonian NGO Un Monde Avenir called on the authorities to release all persons deprived of their liberty for demonstrating peacefully and to conduct thorough investigations into all cases of excessive use of force against demonstrators.

FREEDOM OF ASSOCIATION

Activists arrested

On 19th February 2024, Abdoulaye Math, president of the Mouvement pour la Défense des Droits l'Homme (Movement for the Defence of Human Rights) was summoned and held in custody at the Maroua land brigade for a few hours before being transferred to Maroua prison. He is accused of ‘facilitating the commission of an offence against the Attorney General, contempt and organising a protest demonstration’. The first trial took place on 1st March 2024 and was postponed until 5th April 2024, at the request of the public prosecutor. At the time of writing, no more information was available on the case.

On 19th July 2024, Cameroonian activist Yves Kibouy Bershu, known as Ramon Cotta or Steve Akam, was arrested in Gabon without a warrant. Cotta was living in Gabon and has posted videos on TikTok critical of the government. He was transferred to Cameroon on 23rd July without any known legal or diplomatic procedure, according to his lawyers. He was held in Yaoundé at the Central Judicial Research Department of the Secretary of State for Defence. He was only able to meet his lawyers a month after his arrest. According to them, he is charged with acts of terrorism, insurrection, financing terrorism, arms trafficking and insulting the President and members of the government. When they were finally able to meet him, his lawyers noted the physical after-effects of acts of torture suffered in detention. Videos of Ramon Cotta posted on social media and reviewed by Amnesty International were mainly limited to criticisms of the Cameroonian authorities and the Cameroonian embassy in Gabon. On 10th October 2024, after several months in a cell at the Secretary of State for Defence , he was placed under a six-month pre-trial detention order.

After Cotta’s arrest and transfer, Junior Ngombe, a 23-year-old hairdresser and activist, denounced Ramon Cotta’s treatment in a video viewed more than 218,000 times on TikTok. On 24th July 2024, three men in plain clothes claiming to work for the intelligence services arrested Junior Ngombe outside his shop in Douala. According to his lawyers, Ngombe was taken to a gendarmerie post in Douala before he was transferred the following day to the State Defence Secretariat (Secrétariat d’État à la défense), a gendarmerie-run detention facility in the capital, Yaoundé. He was detained from 24th July to 31st July and charged with “incitement to rebellion” and “propagation of false information.” His arrest is believed to be connected to several TikTok videos criticising the arrest of Ramon Cotta or encouraging people to register to vote for the 2025 presidential elections. His release on bail on 31st July 2024 follows intense mobilisation by various political figures and human rights organisations such as the Central African Human Rights Defenders Network (Redhac).

On 9th September 2024, three supporters of the association Pouvoir au Peuple Camerounais (Power to the People of Cameroon – PPC) - Moustapha Tizi, Mohamadou Ballo and Ibrahim Oumarou - were arbitrarily arrested and detained for wearing t-shirts bearing the name of the organisation in the town of Figuil, North Region. PPC is a youth organisation founded a month earlier to advocate for a regime change. Relatives of the activists were likewise detained. Hapsatou Issa, the sister of a PPC spokesperson, was also arrested on 9th September 2024. According to her family, she was arrested because her brother, a PPC spokesperson, is currently in hiding after receiving threats. Hapsatou Issa’s son, who had come to visit his detained mother to bring her food, was also arrested.

Minister calls for transparency in the management of foreign funding

On 21st October 2024, the Minister of Territorial Administration in Yaoundé, Paul Atanga Nji, chaired an awareness-raising workshop for civil society associations. He reminded them that CSOs must comply with certain requirements, principally transparency. According to the government, the situation is particularly problematic in the management of funds from donors based abroad. The government bases this statement on studies by the National Investigation Agency (ANIF) and the mutual evaluation of the Action group against money laundering in Central Africa (Gabac). He recalled that compliance with the regulations in force implies filing an annual balance sheet of activities with the administrative authorities, making the CSOs’ financial statements available to the supervisory authorities and developing internal control mechanisms. He implied that CSOs should be more transparent in the management of funds from abroad, or risk becoming involved in affairs that could jeopardise national security.

NGO workers abducted

On 10th January 2024, three workers of the NGO Première Urgence Internationale were kidnapped in the Far North region as they were travelling to a refugee camp in Yemé. The kidnapping is attributed to members of Boko Haram.

Human rights lawyer assaulted, subjected to police harassment

On 22nd December 2023, human rights lawyer Atoh Walter M. Tchemi, was subjected to police harassment while on his way to talk to a client, a truck driver allegedly involved in an accident, in Kumba, a city in the SouthWest Region of Cameroon. The policemen present had taken the truck driver’s identity card and driving licence, and, without showing an arrest warrant, ordered the driver to accompany them to a local police station. While trying to find out what was happening, the policemen started to beat the lawyer and accused him of subverting police authority. He decided not to bring legal action due to the length of proceedings. Lawyers have been increasingly targeted by the authorities in Cameroon, according to a recent report by the international organisation Lawyers for Lawyers.

FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION

No convictions yet in the Zogo murder case

Last year, on 17th January 2023, journalist Martinez Zogo, investigative reporter and station manager of Amplitude FM in Yaoundé, was abducted and brutally killed. The investigation into the torture and death of Zogo became a complex political drama involving the country’s elite, as several members from Cameroon’s intelligence services are reportedly involved. RSF conducted an investigation with the information available one year after the event. According to RSF, the statements made by some of the members of the intelligence unit implicated in Zogo’s abduction and subsequent murder describe how the operation was carried out on the orders of Lt. Col. Justin Danwe, head of operations at Cameroon’s General Directorate of Foreign Intelligence (DGRE) and reveal shocking details of the appalling torture to which Zogo was subjected. RSF also underscores the enormous pressure being exerted on this case and the obstacles preventing this journalist’s murder from being solved.

On 29th February 2024, the Colonel Magistrate Pierrot Narcisse Nzie closed the judicial investigation and decided to send 17 defendants to the Yaoundé military court, on charges of conspiracy, torture and murder. Léopold Maxime Eko Eko, former head of the counterintelligence agency General Directorate for External Research (DGRE), and Justin Danwe, former DGRE director of operations, are among the suspects. The trial has been bogged down in procedural issues, and these flaws were raised by the defendants at the hearing on 30th September 2024, to demand their acquittal. The case was once more adjourned.

During the investigation, it appeared that Zogo was targeted by a surveillance operation. The Committee to Protect Journalists expressed its concerns about whether other journalists have also been surveilled by Cameroon’s counterintelligence agency and recalled that the practice is a violation of journalists’ right to privacy and has serious consequences for source protection.

Long list of arrested journalists

Cameroon ranks 130th out of 180 countries in RSF’s 2024 World Press Freedom Index and is not a safe place for journalists, as the following chronological list of events demonstrates:

• On 8th November 2023, Christian Ngah, the managing editor of the newspaper The Post, was arrested by gendarmes at his newspaper’s Yaoundé headquarters. As previously reported by the CIVICUS Monitor, The Post was banned in September 2023 by the Governor of South West Region and its staff subjected to retaliatory actions. Christian Ngah was taken to the Secretariat of State for Defence (SED) and placed in police custody for a few hours. He was accused of ‘disseminating false information’.
• On 13th November 2023, the same day that Cameroon was reviewed at the UN Human Rights Council through its Universal Periodic Review (UPR), judicial police arrested journalist Alioum Aminou, correspondent for Canal 2 International, in Maroua, Far North Region. In a press release, the National Union of Journalists of Cameroon (SNJC) announced that he had been “taken under military escort, like a criminal, to Garoua to be questioned by the public prosecutor”. The warrant for his arrest could be related to an article he published a few days earlier about an alleged brawl between the president of the Garoua High Court and his chief clerk. He was released on 15th November 2023.
• On 6th February 2024, Bruno Bidjang, managing director of the privately-owned L’Anecdote media group and news programme presenter for Vision 4 television, was arrested and brought to the Yaoundé State Secretariat for Defence (SED) headquarters for questioning. He was then detained on allegations of ‘rebellion’ in connection with a video posted and later removed on TikTok. On 8th February, Bidjang appeared in a Yaoundé military court, where a judge sent him back to the SED for “further investigation.” His lawyer told CPJ that investigators questioned Bidjang in relation to a TikTok video he posted in early February commenting about the arrest of a local socialite, Hervé Bopda. Bidjang discussed in the TikTok video the public outcry that led to Bopda’s arrest and said there are other “more important things that the Cameroonian people are not focusing on,” such as the “condition of the roads, access to water, electricity and embezzlement”, according to CPJ’s review of the video. Under Cameroon’s penal code, rebellion by “inciting resistance to the application of laws, regulations or legitimate orders from public authority” is punishable by imprisonment of three months to four years. Bidjang was initially charged with ‘incitement to uprising’,‘endangering state security’ and ‘incitement to insurrection’. However, after investigation, the charges were transformed into ‘spreading false news’. On 14th March 2024, Bidjang pleaded guilty to the charges of spreading false news to expedite the legal process. On 11th July 2024, a military judge sentenced him to six months in prison. He was released on 23rd August 2024.
• On 11th May 2024, Engelbert Mfomo, editor of the newspaper L'Activateur (the Activator), was detained in Mfou, in the Mefou and Afamba department, Center Region for having denounced mismanagement of the organisation of a celebration day by the town’s prefect. Thierry Kin Nou Nana, the prefect of the Méfou-et-Afamba department reportedly ordered his detention. The newspaper had published a piece titled ‘138th Labour Day in Mefou and Afamba: Total failure’, denouncing the assault on women during the Labour Day parade, a deadly traffic accident that day, following which the prefect did not deign to go to the hospital to visit the victims. Engelbert Mfomo also accused the prefect of having handed over a sacred plot of land to a private individual, contributing to the squandering of the town's cultural heritage. Mfomo told CPJ he was accused of inciting revolt, threats, and insults for his critical reporting on the prefect. The Committee to Protect Journalists expressed its concern at the use of a 1990 law that allows administrative authorities to place someone in the custody of law enforcement for a renewable period of 15 days “to fight against organised crime.” Mfomo was released from administrative custody on 14th May 2024.
• On 23rd May 2024, journalist Ghislaine Djeudui and her reporting team were interrupted in their work when they attempted to visit an iron mining site in the locality of Mbalam, near the southern border with the Republic of the Congo. Djeudui, her cameraman and a guide were stopped by the police, taken to the gendarmerie station, questioned and then released.
• Aristide Mono, a university lecturer, radio commentator and consultant on prime-time broadcasts on Equinoxe TV, reported on his Facebook account that he had been the target of two kidnap attempts on 11th and 12th August 2024. At the time of writing, no additional information was available.
• Stéphane Zambo Nguema, a reporter for the weekly Le Zénith, was arrested on 4th September 2024 and detained at the 7th arrondissement police station in Efoulan. According to reports, the journalist was conducting an in-depth investigation into a number of cases involving public contracts and embezzlement within the Ministry of Secondary Education. His investigation focused in particular on the case of Bridget Ngomba Namomdo, the Ministry's No. 2 adviser, who was accused of insider trading and involvement in undelivered public contracts.
• On 22nd October 2024, publication director Thierry Patrick Ondoua of Point Bihebdo responded to a summons and was subsequently held in order to appear before the regional directorate of the judicial police on charges of false news, defamation and insulting official bodies. According to his associates, his arrest is linked to an investigation published on a mix-up between the Ministry of Housing and the Société Immobilière du Cameroun concerning the construction of social housing.
• On 25th October 2024, Atia Tilarious Azonhwi, political editor of the English-speaking newspaper The Sun, was abducted along with three other people in Bamenda, in the conflict-hit North West Region according to the head of a local human rights organisation. He was released the next day.

Bans on irreverent language, health of President

In a decree issued on 16th July 2024, Emmanuel Mariel Djikdent, the head of the Mfoundi division, in the capital Yaoundé , stated that “Any person who;

- Calls for an uprising against the institutions of the Republic;

- Dangerously outrages the Institutions or the person who embodies them (by any means of communication followed in the Mfoundi division) undertakes maneuvers that could lead to serious disturbance of public order;

could be banned from staying in the division. Djikdent issued this decree to “preserve public order.”

In a statement made public on 19th July 2024, a dozen civil society organisations united within the Action 237 movement, denounced this restriction of civic space in Cameroon and reminded that it is not up to the executive power, even less an administrative authority, to interfere in the field of competence of the legislative power.

Two days later, René Emmanuel Sadi, the communication minister, issued a press release stating that “it is unacceptable for compatriots […] to use irreverent language” about the president Paul Biya “who was freely and overwhelmingly elected by his fellow citizens.”

On 9th October 2024, Cameroon outlawed any discussion about the health of 91-year-old President Paul Biya, through a memo sent by the interior ministry to the regional governors after Biya’s prolonged absence fuelled widespread speculation that he was unwell. In the memo, Interior Minister Paul Atanga Nji said discussing the president's health was a matter of national security and was therefore “strictly prohibited”. He added that “Offenders will face the full force of the law” and ordered the governors to set up units to monitor broadcasts on private media channels, as well as social networks.

Cameroonian journalists were on edge and VOA’s Cameroon reporter Moki Edwin Kindzeka said that responses among journalists varied. “Some have ignored the ban and continued reporting on President Paul Biya’s long absence, [and] ill health," he said. "Others are scared, some have been silent on the issue.” Journalist Emmanuel Jules Ntap, said media organisations are being cautious, speaking for example about the long absence from the country, “not talking about his health”, he added. Angela Quintal, head of the CPJ's Africa Program, pointed out that international journalists have been covering the ban more extensively than local media, underscoring the self-censorhip among Cameroonian reporters. Reporters Without Borders condemned it as an "act of intimidation and censorship."

Prison sentences for two journalists detained for years

On 28th August 2024, the former director general of Cameroon’s national radio and TV broadcaster, CRTV, Amadou Vamoulké, was sentenced to 20 years by the Special Criminal Court after 178 successive postponements for “embezzlement of public funds.” The journalist was arrested in 2016 and has remained behind bars ever since. In December 2022, Vamoulké had already been sentenced to 12 years‘ imprisonment after having been found guilty of embezzlement of public funds, including illegally collecting holiday expenses amounting to 16 million CFA francs (approximately $26,400) and paying additional salaries to CRTV staff from the Ministry of Finance without authorisation from the board of directors. The journalist's total sentence, therefore, amounts to 32 years of imprisonment. Vamoulké’s lawyers appealed against this decision to the Supreme Court.

According to RSF, this sentence just closes “eight years of relentless judicial harassment against a journalist renowned for his rigor and integrity. Everything about this case is problematic: in terms of substance, there is evidence that proves Amadou Vamoulké's innocence; in terms of procedure, the two judgements were handed down illegally under Cameroonian law. How can a journalist be sentenced to a total of 32 years in prison, all on the basis of unfounded accusations and without tangible proof? It is imperative that the authorities take action and free this journalist, who is suffering from a number of health problems."

On 24th September 2024, less than a month after Vamoulké’s sentence, freelance journalist Kingsley Fumunyuy Njoka was sentenced to ten years’ imprisonment by the Yaoundé military court for ‘secession and complicity with armed gangs’. Njoka regularly published reports critical of the authorities, notably working for the English-language media outlet Canal 2 English on the Anglophone crisis. Arrested without a warrant on 15th May 2020 at his home in Douala by members of the Bonabéri research brigade, Njoka has been held in pre-trial detention at the Kondengui Central Prison in the Yaoundé region ever since. One of Njoka’s lawyers, Amungwa Tanyi Nicodemus, a former journalist who worked with Njoka, told RSF this was an "unfair trial, in violation of Cameroonian laws and international law," stressing that "the time limit for detention without trial, 18 months maximum in this kind of case, was not respected at all." Nicodemus appealed against this conviction on 27th September.

Warnings and suspension of media players

At its 43rd ordinary session held on 8th August 2024, the National Communication Council (CNC) examined five cases and took strong measures against certain media players in Cameroon. First, it suspended the radio station RIS and banned the columnist Sismond Bidjocka from practising journalism for 6 months for broadcasting unsubstantiated and offensive statements damaging to the honour and dignity of Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh, Minister of State.

It also suspended for a month the publishing director of the newspaper Première Heure (First Hour) and its journalist Alain Balomlog for unsubstantiated claims accusing the Ministry of Agriculture of managerial problems within the Ministry.

It also suspended Duval Fangwa, presenter of the programme ‘Droit de Réponse’ broadcast on Equinoxe TV for one month for ‘failure to comply with the rules of ethics and professional conduct in journalism’. The programme ‘Droit de Réponse’, which is broadcast every Sunday, has also been sanctioned by the media watchdog, along with Equinoxe TV, which has received a ‘warning’ from the CNC. This sanction follows a complaint lodged with the media regulator by the Minister for Scientific Research and Innovation, Madeleine Tchuente.

The CNC has also singled out CAM 10 TV and warned the media for broadcasting comments deemed offensive towards the Minister of Territorial Administration, Paul Atanga Nji.

Peaceful Assembly

Public meeting to elect president of opposition party prohibited

A public meeting dedicated to the renewal of the steering committee and the election of the president of opposition party Cameroon Party for National Reconciliation (PCRN) scheduled for 15th to 17th December 2023 in the town of Kribi, South Region, was prohibited by the sub-prefect of Kribi on 23rd November 2023. According to the local authorities, ‘the said event is prohibited due to internal dissension within this political grouping likely to seriously disrupt public order’.

Assault on journalists celebrating World Press Freedom Day

Cameroonian journalists had planned to celebrate World Press Freedom on 3rd May 2024 at a venue in Douala. The police decided otherwise and interrupted the gathering, assaulted journalists and confiscated their equipment in the process. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) joined its affiliate, the Syndicat National des Journalistes du Cameroun in condemning this aggression.

Workshop on the fight against hate speech and misinformation

On 18th June 2024, the CSO CIVIC WATCH, with the help of Action pour le Respect des Droits de l’Homme et la Dignité Humaine (ARDHU) organised a webinar on the fight against hate speech, disinformation and misinformation in the Maroua office of the National Human Rights Commission (CNDH).

Assembly

Use of excessive force against demonstrators: people killed, injured

According to the data produced by ACLED, the following three events saw an excessive use of force during protests held in 2024:

On 15th January 2024, residents protested in front of the gendarmerie in Kouoptame demanding the release of one of the residents held in custody after a land dispute. The military forces were deployed to the scene where they shot and killed two civilians.

On 16th March 2024, some members of a church protested against the planned installation of a church leader. Following a series of twists and turns within the leadership of the True Church of God, the Minister of the Territorial Administration imposed a leader. The military forces beat and detained 12 protesters, who were released two days later.

In June 2024, local residents in Japoma, including many internally displaced persons, protested against the planned demolition of their houses, a decision made by the Douala City Council. The police and gendarmerie forces intervened using tear gas, and one asthmatic woman subsequently died after inhaling tear gas.

Women organisations and CSOs continue to play a role in Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration processes

More than a hundred participants from women’s organisations and civil society organisations involved in Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration (DDR) initiatives in the Lake Chad Basin participated in a regional workshop in Yaoundé on 24th and 25th June 2024. It was organised by the National Commission for Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration (CNDDR), the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) and UN Women, in partnership with the Association de Lutte contre les Violences faites aux Femmes (ALVF-EN) and Local Youth Corner (LOYOC) and aimed at strengthening the involvement of women's and civil society organisations in the DDR process.