Source : Sahel weather Novembre 2024 

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The shocking images showing the sub-prefect of Idabato, Roland Ewane, tied up and abused have rekindled the debate on torture in the country. Abducted in early October, it was only a month later that these images were made public. The Réseau des défenseurs humains en Afrique centrale (Radhec) denounced “acts of torture, inhuman and degrading treatment of a sub-prefect (...) representing the Head of State in this region”. As a reminder, the English-speaking region that is home to the Idabato commune has been plagued by armed violence between the Cameroonian army and separatists since 2016. In addition, according to a report by a consortium of civil society organizations, the NGO Mandela Carter and “New Human Rights”, the government practices “denial” about torture in the country. “People are tortured on a daily basis. The torturers who are responsible, including for the death of their victims, are often promoted. So this is one of the indicators that the state, in its governing structure, validates torture, perhaps as an instrument of governance,” said Hilaire Kamga, one of the authors of the report presented to the UN committee.

The security situation is still not exactly rosy. In the far north of the country, several women and children drowned on the night of November 23-24, after their pirogue capsized while they were fleeing a Boko Haram attack. According to the divisional officer of Blangoua - the region's administrative unit - hundreds of Boko Haram elements stormed the village of Koutoula, then fired random shots, looted stores and killed several people, including the village chief.

On the internal political front, opposition politician Jean-Michel Nintcheu saw his home surrounded by “gendarmes and police from the anti-terrorist unit”, when he was due to hold a meeting of the national steering committee of his party, the Front pour le changement du Cameroun (FCC). “We have the impression that the government of the Republic, or at least certain players in the seraglio, have become feverish as the big night approaches. (...) What is the “big night”? It's post-Biya,” Jean-Robert Wafo, the party's national communications secretary, told RFI.

The assault on lawyer Richard Tamfu provoked a wave of indignation in the legal profession. The lawyer opposed the arrest of his client, who had received a summons without an arrest warrant from the Bonanjo gendarmerie in Douala. Richard Tamfu was molested and carried to the back of a pick-up truck. “They then made me get into the back of their pick-up and started beating me (...) They kicked me, pressed their hands hard on my neck and jumped on me with their boots,” he lamented. The NGO Mandela Carter deplored “yet another excessive use of force.” Meanwhile, a Cameroonian driver lost his life on the main road linking Bangui (Central African Republic) to Douala. According to the Central African Ministry of Defense, these were “acts of violence perpetrated against one of the allied vehicles”. The truckers subsequently went on strike, demanding an investigation into the death of their colleague, who they claimed was the victim of an “assassination” perpetrated by Russian paramilitaries present in the Central African Republic.