Cameroonian authorities should immediately lift an indefinite ban against The Post newspaper in the Southwest Region and stop any retaliatory action against the privately owned media outlet and its staff, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Friday.On Tuesday, September 12, Southwest regional governor Bernard Okalia Bilai banned The Post until further notice, accusing the outlet of “flagrant violation of professional norms,” according to a copy of the order reviewed by CPJ and media reports.

The ban followed the publication of a social media post showing a copy of the newspaper’s Monday front page with a headline, “66% of Cameroonians want a military coup.” It was based on a September 9 report in the weekly The Continent and a tweet about a survey of citizens in 36 countries between 2021 and 2022 by Afrobarometer, a pan-African, non-partisan research network based in Ghana. The survey found that while most Africans disapprove of military rule, “a slim majority (53%) are willing to endorse military intervention if elected leaders abuse their power,” including 66% of respondents in Cameroon, who agreed that “it was legitimate for the armed forces to take control of the government when elected leaders abuse power for their own ends.”

The Post’s senior editors pulled the edition before it could be printed, and a new one without the headline or article was published and distributed, but it was too late to delete the social media post that was uploaded without final approval, according to the newspaper’s editor-in-chief Bouddih Adams, who spoke to CPJ via messaging app, and a statement on the newspaper’s Facebook page.

A spate of coups in the region, including most recently in neighboring Gabon, where the Bongo family had ruled for 56 years, has led to speculation and fear among some leaders, including Cameroon’s president Paul Biya, who has been in power for more than 40 years, that they might be next. On August 30, the day of the Gabon coup, Biya announced a shakeup in the defense ministry and armed forces, giving no reason for the decision.

The governor’s action against The Post comes less than two months after Minister of Territorial Administration, Paul Atanga Nji, urged regional governors to closely monitor the activities of media outlets and NGOs operating in Cameroon and warned the media “to think twice before publishing or making public pronouncements.”

“Cameroonian authorities, including Southwest Governor Bernard Okalia Bilal, should immediately lift the sanctions against The Post, especially as the headline and article never made it into print and its senior executives were quick to act and limit any fallout,” said Angela Quintal, CPJ’s Africa program coordinator. “The fact that The Post is being sanctioned and penalized on three fronts by authorities is not only excessive and disproportionate, but also proves that press freedom remains under threat in Cameroon, especially after Minister Paul Atanga Nji’s recent warning to the media to toe the line or face the consequences.”

The Post’s coup-themed front-page headline (the story was inside) caused consternation among Cameroon’s ruling elite and prompted Joseph Chebongkeng Kalabubse, the president of Cameroon’s media regulator, the National Communication Council, to rebuke the newspaper on Tuesday, saying it went against “the responsibility and professional rules that guide journalism given the country’s socio-political context,” according to a media report and a recording of his statement reviewed by CPJ.

The same day, a committee on government funding of private media, under the Ministry of Communications, barred the newspaper from receiving an annual grant because of the headline, according to at least two people with knowledge of the decision who asked not to be named as they are not authorized to comment.

Both actions were taken while newspaper representatives appeared before an NCC inquiry on Wednesday, with the media regulator ruling on the next day that The Post and its publisher, Yerima Kini Nsom, should be suspended for one month each for the headline on social media “bearing information likely to disrupt national cohesion and social peace,” according to a copy of the decision reviewed by CPJ and a video recording of the NCC press conference.

Also on Thursday, two representatives of the newspaper were questioned by the governor’s head of security about the source of their information, Nsom told CPJ via messaging app.

Neither Bilal nor Kalabubse replied to CPJ’s questions via messaging app.

Nsom said he did not believe that the NCC decision would trump the governor’s decision in the Southwest Region, where the paper is headquartered. “It is a grotesque situation wherein many cooks are involved in the cooking of one pot of soup. The governor is using an obnoxious law on the maintenance of public order, which is virtually a blank cheque for him to abuse office and infringe on freedoms, especially press freedom,” Nsom said, adding that the publication and staff  “remained vulnerable” to further harassment and possibly even arrest.

Afrobarometer’s director of analysis Carolyn Logan told CPJ via email that its national partner in Cameroon had been questioned by the regional governor and media authorities. “But they have jointly reviewed the information that was released on the Afrobarometer website, and as of now there have been no consequences for our partner” or Afrobarometer, she said, adding that the headline in question did not accurately reflect the findings released by Afrobarometer.

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Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has managed to speak with several members of the Cameroonian intelligence unit implicated in radio journalist Martinez Zogo’s death. Was it a murder or a beating that got out of hand? Some evidence has shed light on the circumstances but other evidence seems to have “disappeared” during the investigation, casting doubt on the determination of the authorities to establish the truth.

At least 13 members of Cameroon’s General Directorate for External Investigations (DGRE) participated in the operation that resulted in Martinez Zogo’s death on 17 January. RSF has been able to talk to three of them, including the operation’s presumed leader, Lt. Col. Justin Danwe, the DGRE’s special operations director. Danwe, who RSF has met twice at Yaoundé’s main prison in recent months, has stuck to his original story.

He says he organised an operation designed to intimidate Zogo on the orders of Jean-Pierre Amougou Belinga, a prominent businessman known as AB. The director of Radio Amplitude FM and host of a very popular radio show called “Embouteillage” (Traffic Jam), Zogo had – at the time of his abduction – been responsible for revealing many details of financial scandals implicating members of the government and their allies, including Belinga, the owner of the L’Anecdote media group and two TV channels, Vision 4 Télévision and Télésud.

The case is far from being based solely on these statements, whose content was already revealed by RSF. It is also based on the statements of other detained members of the DGRE. One of them, whom RSF met in prison in recent weeks, said Zogo had been followed for around ten days prior to his abduction. He was tailed day and night everywhere he went by groups of seven operatives, who took turns to follow him. When finally abducted, he was taken to Soa, a northern suburb of the capital. It was there that they began to torture him after nightfall.

Zogo was then taken to the Belinga-owned Ekang building, which he would not leave alive. “At first, the aim was not to kill him,” RSF was told by one of the members of the DGRE unit who was present that evening. “At one point, I went to fetch him some water and, when I returned, his ear had been cut off.” More acts of torture followed. They were incredibly violent. He was beaten, mutilated, subjected to sexual abuse and even the skin from the soles of the feet was torn off.

Mysterious second unit

Amid signs of panic and haste, there is confusion regarding what happened during the next 48 hours, on 18 and 19 January. After being seen in the Ekang building on the evening of the murder, according to Danwe, Belinga was informed about the outcome of the operation, and was given a video of the acts of torture. What was to be done with the body? What was discussed and who decided? After two days of hesitation and procrastination, Zogo’s body was wrapped in aluminium foil and was taken by night, when no one could see, to a vacant lot with the aim of using acid to destroy it.

According to several sources close to the judicial investigation whom RSF has met in recent weeks, it was at this moment that a second unit, also comprised of DGRE members, arrived at the scene with the aim of ending this coverup operation. Surprised, the first group fled before completing their task. The second group deposited Zogo’s corpse on a dirt road in such a way as to ensure that it would be found. Who were the members of this second unit? How did they know what was going on? And why did they leave the body in plain sight?

In this deepening shambles, the death squad decided that the grey Toyota Prado that was borrowed for the operation should be returned to its owner. The latter, whom RSF was able to meet, discovered a military jacket and bloodstains in his car. It was now 22 January. Zogo’s body was discovered the same day. The owner quickly realised that his car had been used for an abduction and murder that was soon receiving a great deal of media attention.

Non-existent, inaccessible or removed evidence?

The conclusions of the two autopsies carried out on the body were revealing. In many media outlets, Belinga’s supporters had repeatedly questioned the body’s identity but the DNA tests carried out with samples from Zogo’s sister and son left no room for doubt. The body was indeed Zogo’s. The second autopsy also revealed a crucial detail: the presence of acid, especially on the face.

The investigation now seems to be concluding that this operation did not aim to kill Zogo. But there are nonetheless two conflicting versions. According to Danwe’s account, justice minister Laurent Esso – a dominant figure in the government – clearly told Belinga in a phone call to “finish the job.” At the same time, several sources who have had access to the judicial file highlight the absence of records of Belinga’s phone calls and messages. The other version is that of a security source very close to the case who thinks it was a beating that got out of hand. According to this source, a military chief warrant officer known as “Djoda” played a fateful role. It was “Djoda” who reportedly cut off Zogo’s ear. In his pain, did Zogo struggle violently, causing the beating to get out of hand? Or was he deliberately murdered?

More than six months after Zogo’s death, the 15 imprisoned suspects, including Belinga, who has been held since February, are charged only with “complicity in torture.” This smells of a “fix,” said a security source. Another source who has had access to the case file said it was “inexplicable.”

Many people close to the case are now beginning to doubt the judicial investigation’s sincerity. Some point to the absence of certain evidence, which has disappeared or was never included in the case file. Telephone data, in particular, had not been incorporated into the file several weeks after the investigation began. And there is no sign that this data is there now. It is inconceivable that phone records, which are essential to the success of an investigation of this kind, have not been obtained. Another source pointed to the “attempts to remove the Ekang building’s CCTV recordings” of 17 January. “What are they hiding? Who do they want to protect?” one of Zongo’s sisters asked during an interview with RSF. “I think they are trying to bury the affair.”

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Second journalist killed in less than two weeks in Cameroon

IPI condemns the killing of Cameroon journalist Jean Jacques Ola Bebe in early February and demands authorities investigate this incident, ensure justice, and address the deteriorating situation of the safety of journalists and press freedom in the country.

The killing occurred less than two weeks after the murder of journalist Martinez Zogo, the director of radio Amplitude, and host of the radio program “Embouteillage”, where he used his platform to denounce cronyism, corruption, and poor governance.

According to reports, on February 3, 2023, the body of Ola Bebe was found close to his home in Mimboman, a suburb of Yaoundé, the capital city of Cameroon. Ola Bebe was a priest and journalist who worked with several media houses in Yaoundé. 

He was considered close to the slain journalist Martinez Zogo. IPI previously reported about the assassination of Zogo by unknown individuals on the alleged order of powerful public figures. Authorities have recently made apparent progress in the murder investigation, including arresting high-ranking security officials.

It is not yet clear what the motive behind the assassination of Ola Bebe was. It is still also not yet clear whether or not the killing of Ola Bebe is connected to the murder of Zogo and if authorities have launched an investigation into the murder of Ola Bebe.

Ola Bebe was known for his forthright and outspoken attitude on radio broadcasts, as well as his denunciation of corruption. 

According to reports, before his death, Ola Bebe told Cameroon’s Galaxy FM Radio he was receiving regular death threats that he suspected were from authorities. The journalist also reportedly told his wife that he was concerned about his safety and security after being followed by unknown individuals.

“Attacking the life of a journalist is an intolerable attack on the principle of freedom of expression and thus consecrates the regression in Cameroon of a cardinal principle of democracy of which the country was proud,” said Alex Koko A Dang, president of the National Union of Independent Journalists of Cameroon (SYNAJIC). “SYNAJIC condemns with the last energy the odious crime against Martinez Zogo and Jean Jacques Ola Bebe, and asks that justice be done.”

In recent years Cameroon has seen several brutal attacks on journalists, as well as the arrest and jailing of journalists under the regime of President Paul Biya, who has ruled the country for more than four decades. 

The atmosphere of insecurity for journalists has led to increased self-censorship out of fear of reprisal. Those who do dare speak truth to power, or denounce cronyism and corruption like Martinez Zogo, face great risks.

“Authorities in Cameroon must act efficiently to guarantee a safe and secure environment for journalists to do their work without fear of reprisals,” IPI Director of Advocacy Amy Brouillette said. “As in the case of Martinez Zogo, Cameroon must carry out a swift, transparent, and credible investigation into the murder of Jean Jacques Ola Bebe and hold the perpetrators to account.”

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Five days after Cameroonian radio station director Martinez Zogo’s abduction, his body was found near the capital yesterday (22 January 2023), bearing the signs of probable torture before he was killed. Reporters Without Borders (RSF) calls on the authorities to do everything possible to identify those responsible and bring them to justice, and to protect journalists in Cameroon.

This is a grave blow to democracy and press freedom. First he was brutally abducted and then his lifeless body was found with the marks of torture. Everything indicates that he was deliberately killed. This murder of a journalist who was just doing his job must not go unpunished. We urge the Cameroonian authorities to conduct an independent investigation that does not falter, and to end the climate of violence against media personnel. Journalists must be able to work safely and without risk of reprisals, and to be placed under protection when necessary.

Sadibou Marong, director of RSF’s sub-Saharan Africa bureau

When found in Ebogo, a village about 20 km outside the capital, Yaoundé, Martinez Zogo’s body was naked and decomposing, his family and colleagues said. He was found on 22 January 2023, a few days after his abduction. According to RSF’s sources, his body was badly mutilated and his clothes were found scattered within a radius of around 100 metres.

The body was taken to the morgue of Yaoundé’s central hospital. So far, no autopsy findings have been published but a government statement said the body had been “visibly subjected to significant physical cruelty.” Neither the police chief nor state prosecutor has so far issued any statement.

However, the National Union of Cameroonian Journalists issued a statement denouncing “an appalling murder with consequences that will further restrict freedom and security in Cameroon.” The director of privately-owned Amplitude FM and the host of a radio show called “Embouteillages,” Zogo often talked about cases of alleged corruption involving well-known figures. He recently began addressing a case of embezzlement allegedly involving Jean-Pierre Amougou Belinga, a wealthy businessman and media owner who is said to be close to finance minister Louis-Paul Motaze.

Zogo is the second journalist to die in alarming circumstances in recent years. In June 2020, the authorities said regional TV presenter Samuel Wazizi had died in detention after being accused of “terrorism.”

Need for police protection

Journalists’ safety is a real problem in Cameroon. Paul Chouta, a reporter for Cameroun Web, a news site critical of the government, was forced into a car by unidentified men, given a severe beating and left for dead at the side of a road on 9 March 2022, two days after he posted a photo on Facebook showing the finance minister and Belinga. Since then, Chouta does not go out alone. The complaint he filed with a Yaoundé court has yet to produce any results.

Chouta reported that he was followed by a black car with no licence plate while on his way to the morgue yesterday to identify Zogo’s body and, in a Facebook post, he said he was afraid of being the “next victim.” In the current context, Chouta should be receiving police protection.

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In response to news reports that a special criminal court in Yaoundé on Tuesday sentenced Amadou Vamoulké, the former managing director of the state-owned Cameroon Radio and Television (CRTV) broadcaster, to 12 years in prison and 47 million FCFA (US$76,000) in fines, the Committee to Protect Journalists condemned the sentence in this statement.

“Tuesday’s late-night conviction and sentencing of Cameroonian journalist Amadou Vamoulké on retaliatory charges of embezzlement is a monumental travesty of justice and could be tantamount to a death sentence,” Angela Quintal, CPJ’s Africa program coordinator, said in New York on Wednesday. “Vamoulké is 72 and has already spent more than six years in arbitrary detention. Prosecutors must agree not to contest his appeal and given his age, failing health, and the overcrowded, unhygienic conditions at Kondengui Central Prison, immediately allow him to go home on bail.”

Vamoulké’s lawyer, Alice Nkom, confirmed to French news agency Agence France-Presse that her client would appeal. She previously told CPJ that Vamoulké’s arrest was a reprisal for his management of CRTV. “The official reason for his arrest is a pretext for trying to silence journalists in Cameroon … Amadou never accepted as black what he knew was white,” Nkom said.

Vamoulké was arrested on July 29, 2016, and is the longest-serving of five journalists currently imprisoned in Cameroon, according to CPJ’s annual prison census of jailed journalists as of December 1, 2022. The country is the third-worst jailer of journalists in Africa, after Egypt and Eritrea.

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Reporters Without Borders (RSF) condemns a decision by Cameroon’s National Communication Council (CNC) to suspend the head of one of the country’s most outspoken and popular TV channels, one of its star presenters, and one of its leading current affairs programmes for a month. The suspensions are arbitrary and unjustified, and constitute a serious press freedom violation, RSF said.

The one-month suspensions of Equinoxe TV director Sévérin Tchounkeu, presenter Cédric Noufele and the programme “Droit de Réponse” (Right of Reply) were announced by the media regulator on 1 April.

Alluding to a teachers’ strike, the CNC accused Equinoxe TV of “failing to manage” a guest whose comments were “liable to amplify a potentially explosive social demand.” It also accused Tchounkeu of making offensive comments about state institutions, and Noufele of broadcasting an amateur video that was not related to the subject discussed – an error that the TV channel had nonetheless acknowledged and repeatedly corrected.

“We condemns these suspensions, which have no serious grounds and clearly aim to sanction a media for its coverage of a strike that embarrasses the authorities,” said Arnaud Froger, the head of RSF’s Africa desk. “This is nothing less than an attack on journalism and the right to news and information, which this regulator is supposed to protect. We call on the CNC, which is not in the habit of imposing arbitrary sanctions, to review this decision.”

Cameroonian journalists are often subjected to judicial harassment, arbitrary detention and sometimes very violent physical attacks, but politically motivated media suspensions are relatively rare. Equinoxe TV has been summoned before the CNC several times in the past but has not been suspended in recent years.

Cameroon is ranked 135th out of 180 countries in RSF’s World Press Freedom Index.

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Cameroonian authorities should drop the prosecution of journalist Malcom Bernabé Paho and decriminalize journalism in the country, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Wednesday.

On February 22, the national gendarmerie arrested Paho, director of the newspaper Midi Libre Hebdo; opened a criminal defamation case against him; and detained him for two days in the capital Yaoundé, following a complaint filed by Boba Denis, a pastor who heads the Africa Life World Mission church, an international religious organization, according to news reports  and the journalist, who spoke to CPJ via messaging app.

Denis filed the complaint on January 27, after Midi Libre Hebdo published an article on November 29, 2021, alleging that Denis had sexual relations with church members, according to a letter to Paho from Cameroon’s National Communication Council (CNC), the country’s communications regulator, and the article, both of which CPJ reviewed. Denis claimed the article contained “unfounded statements likely to damage his image,” according to the CNC letter.

“Cameroonian authorities should drop their prosecution of journalist Malcolm Barnabé Paho and reform the country’s laws to ensure journalism is not criminalized,” said Angela Quintal, CPJ’s Africa program director, from New York. “Cameroon should focus on ensuring that there are no journalists in jail, not look to add more.”

On February 24, Paho was released on bail after paying 100,000 CFA francs (US$167), Paho’s lawyer, Soumele Jatsa Augustin, told CPJ by phone. In Cameroon, defamation is punishable with up to six months in prison and a fine of 2 million CFA francs (US$3,350), according to Article 305 of the penal code.

Paho is expected to appear in court on April 14, he told CPJ.

Denis told CPJ by phone that he filed separate defamation complaints with Cameroon’s gendarmerie, to hold Paho criminally liable, and the CNC, which can impose sanctions on media outlets and journalists. ‘’I blame him (Paho) for everything he said in the newspaper without consulting me and making sure that what he said was true. What he wrote is extremely serious. It puts my life in danger,” Denis said.

The CNC reviewed and ultimately rejected Denis’ complaint against the journalist, Paho told CPJ. Jean Tobie Ho, the secretary general of the CNC told CPJ by phone that the complaint was rejected over a technical issue.

CPJ’s calls and questions sent via messaging app to Florent Ntyam-Nkoto, Cameroon’s Public Prosecutor at the Court of Yaoundé Administrative Center, went unanswered.

There are at least four journalists currently jailed in connection with their work in Cameroon, according to CPJ research; two have been released since December 1, 2021, when CPJ conducted its last census of journalists behind bars for their work around the world.

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Cameroonian authorities should immediately investigate an attack on Paul Chouta, a reporter for the privately owned news website Cameroon Web, and ensure those who assaulted him are held accountable, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Friday.

On Wednesday evening, Chouta was watching the UEFA Champions League soccer game between Real Madrid and Paris St. Germain with friends in a snack bar in the Damas district of the capital Yaoundé, when three unidentified men in a green pick-up truck abducted the journalist, drove him to the outskirts of the city, and viciously kicked and beat him with stones, bricks, a baton and a whip, according to a statement by his employer reviewed by CPJ, media reports, and the journalist, who spoke to CPJ via messaging app.

In the statement, Cameroon Web editor-in-chief Emmanuel Vitus was unable to say what report may have prompted the latest attack; he told CPJ via messaging app that this was not the first time that Chouta was attacked for his journalism and that the reporter, and his family should be placed under police protection while the assault was investigated. Vitus described the assault as “an attack on freedom of the press and on democracy,” adding that Chouta was a “courageous journalist and whistleblower.”

“Cameroonian police must thoroughly investigate the latest attack on Paul Chouta, a journalist and outspoken critic of the government, and bring swift justice to those responsible,” said Angela Quintal, CPJ’s Africa program coordinator. “Failure to act will reinforce perceptions that impunity for crimes against journalists is the order of the day in Cameroon and that journalists like Paul Chouta are simply not safe in their own country.”

Chouta went outside during half-time and was accosted by men wearing civilian clothes, who carried him across the road and threw him in the vehicle, the journalist told CPJ. Chouta shouted for help, but his attackers pushed him into the pick-up truck and used his shirt to blindfold him, he said. Chouta said he believed he had been tailed and that a few miles down the road the men stopped the car and picked up a fourth man.

The men drove Chouta to the outskirts of the city, near the airport, where he was told to kneel and was severely beaten and kicked for about four minutes before he fell unconscious, he told CPJ. “They told me that I’m stubborn and that I never learn a lesson,” Chouta said. “They said this time they will kill me, as I wanted to show that I was a hero.”

Chouta said he was left for dead. When he regained consciousness, he said he had been stripped naked; his wallet, identity, and bank cards had been taken; and he was unable to see out of his left eye, had a swollen face and ear, and was in great pain.

The journalist walked naked and barefoot for about two miles (three kilometers) before he was helped by strangers. He was able to remember his girlfriend’s telephone number and they called her to take him to the hospital, Chouta said.

Chouta spent Thursday night in the hospital and is expected to be discharged today to seek treatment at another medical facility, according to the reporter and his editor.

Chouta told CPJ that he had been interviewed at the hospital by police this morning and was told that a knife had been found where he was attacked. Video footage from the snack bar’s closed-circuit camera was also taken by police, he said.

Police spokeswoman Joyce Ndem replied to CPJ’s request for comment by saying itshould send a representative to talk to her in her office in Yaounde. She did not reply to a subsequent text via messaging app.

In February 2019, Chouta was attacked outside his home following political coverage, as CPJ documented at the time. Four months later, he was arrested on charges believed to be politically motivated. He was jailed for nearly two years until a court in May 2021 found him guilty and sentenced him to 23 months, which he had already served, and released him.

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Cameroonian journalist Amadou Vamoulké, the septuagenarian former head of the national radio and TV broadcaster, has just completed his 2,000th day in detention without being convicted on any charge. Cameroon’s disgraceful treatment of Vamoulké falls far below even the most basic standards of justice and human dignity, says Reporters Without Borders (RSF).

Adjourned 90 times, his trial is the longest to have been held as part of the anti-corruption drive known as Operation Sparrowhawk that the Cameroonian authorities launched in 2006. Critics have often accused them of exploiting Sparrowhawk to get rid of personalities regarded as a nuisance. Aside from the shocking treatment of journalists in Eritrea, which is one of the world’s worst dictatorships and is rightly last in RSF’s World Press Freedom Index, this case has also broken all records for the longest detention of an African journalist without being convicted. Vamoulké has been held for more than five and a half years.

Arrested on 29 July 2016, Vamoulké is the subject of two distinct grotesque proceedings on charges of misusing public funds as director-general of Cameroon Radio Television (CRTV) – charges for which absolutely no evidence and no witness has ever been produced by the prosecution. In a letter on 29 December to the secretary-general of the prime minister’s office, whose duties include ensuring Cameroon’s compliance with the international conventions and treaties it has signed, Vamoulké’s French and Cameroonian lawyers called on the authorities to free him in order to comply with the decision issued on 12 July 2020 by the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention. After being referred the case by RSF, the Working Group issued an unambiguous determination that Vamoulké’s provisional detention has “no legal basis” and that the violations of the right to due process are “of such gravity” that they confer an “arbitrary character” on Mr. Vamoulké’s detention.

“Two thousand days in prison and 90 trial adjournments – these are dizzying figures behind which lies the life of a journalist broken by five and a half years of totally illegal provisional detention,” said Arnaud Froger, the head of RSF’s Africa desk. “We reiterate our appeal to the Cameroonian authorities to end this judicial persecution, which is breaking all records, which is arbitrarily depriving a journalist of his freedom, and which is discrediting all of the Cameroonian institutions involved.”

In its decision, the UN Working Group also voiced concern about the health of Vamoulké, who will be 72 next month and who suffers from an illness described by medical experts as “severe.” He has never been given the tests and treatment required by his ailment and he is in great danger from Covid-19 because of his age and pre-existing conditions, and because of prison over-crowding.

Cameroon is ranked 135th out of 180 countries in RSF’s 2021 World Press Freedom Index.

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Perpetrators should be held accountable

A violent mob sexually assaulted, beat, threatened, and humiliated a 27-year-old intersex person on November 15, in Yaoundé, Cameroon’s capital. The perpetrators filmed the attack, which lasted for several hours, in two horrific videos which circulated on social media.

According to medical reports issued by a health facility in Yaoundé, the victim Sara (not her real name) suffered multiple hematomas all over her body. Sara’s doctor said that she needed monitoring for 15 to 18 days due to the severity of her injuries.

Police arrested a man in connection with the attack, but released him 48 hours later. On November 16, Cameroonian Foundation for AIDS (CAMFAIDS), a human rights organization advocating for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex (LGBTI) people, filed a complaint with the police on behalf of Sara as a victim of assault, battery, and inhuman and degrading treatment. CAMFAIDS is providing support to Sara, including for medical and psychological assistance.

Two CAMFAIDS members said Sara is shocked and severely traumatized and attempted suicide on November 19. “We found her unconscious in the bathroom beside a bottle of bleach. We called the doctor. She is under observation,” said a CAMFAID activist.

In August, Human Rights Watch documented another brutal mob attack against two transgender women, Shakiro and Patricia, in Douala, Cameroon’s economic capital. The attack occurred just weeks after a court had ordered the women’s release from prison pending their appeal of a five-year sentence on arbitrary “homosexuality” charges.

2021 has seen an uptick in police action against LGBTI people in Cameroon. Between February and April, security forces arrested at least 27 people, including a child, for alleged consensual same-sex conduct or gender nonconformity, beating and subjecting some to forced anal examinations in detention, recognized as a form or ill-treatment or torture.

Authorities have yet to make a public statement on Sara’s attack. Their silence over this high-profile incident of senseless violence against an LGBTI victim risks sending a message of tolerance for such abuse and highlights the government’s failure to protect LGBTI Cameroonians. Police should urgently respond to CAMFAID’s complaint, investigate the attack against Sara, and bring those responsible to justice. They should also ensure the safety of LGBTI activists who are doing crucial work in a climate of intimidation and violence.

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