Two dead and dozens arrested amid Cameroon election crackdown | Cameroon
At least two people have been killed and dozens of protesters arrested in Cameroon as the government cracks down on opposition before the final results of this month’s presidential election are announced.
Reports in the local media, based on preliminary data from the electoral commission (Elecam), suggest that the victory of 92-year-old incumbent Paul Biya is almost certain. This prospect triggered anger and distrust among his opponents and led to unrest in many regions.
Biya, who has been in power since 1982 and is the head of the ruling Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement (CPDM), is the world’s longest-serving head of state.
Constitutional Council president Clément Atangana confirmed earlier this week that the official results will be published on October 27. The council had already rejected 10 petitions alleging election fraud, including those submitted by opposition parties, regarding decisions that further deepened public distrust in the process.
Biya’s long-time ally turned foe Issa Tchiroma Bakary, who leads the Cameroon National Liberation Front, declared himself the winner earlier this week, claiming 54.8% of the vote to Biya’s 31.3%.
Tchiroma said the Constitutional Council would be “complicit in the breach of trust” if it approved results that he said were manipulated. “The vast majority of Cameroonians will never accept the council confirming the historic scale of ballot stuffing and tampering,” he said.
Biya’s ruling party condemned Tchiroma’s claim to victory as a “grotesque hoax” and “an unacceptable fraud on the rule of law” and said in a statement that it “calmly awaits the official results.”
Protesters clashed with security guards who fired tear gas canisters in Tchiroma’s hometown of Garoua in the north on Wednesday. At least two people were killed, including a teacher who died after being hit by stray bullets. Demonstrations also took place in the capital Yaoundé, where crowds gathered in important administrative areas were quickly dispersed by security forces.
The anger took on a deeply personal tone in the city of Maroua in the Far North region, one of Cameroon’s poorest regions and Tchiroma’s political stronghold. A group of young people left a handwritten letter in front of the regional governor’s office expressing their despair in the face of poverty and political exclusion.
“The youth of Maroua are writing to you today to let you know that we are fed up with this country because the Far North region is the poorest region,” the message said. “All citizens voted for Issa [Tchiroma]but the government wants to rig it. Better to join Boko Haram in Sambisa [in Nigeria near the border with Cameroon] rather than stay another seven years. If you leave us, you and the CPDM activists will pay the price in blood in Maroua.”
Authorities moved quickly to suppress dissent. More than 20 people detained during the protests will be tried by a military court, regional administration minister Paul Atanga Nji said in a televised speech.
Warning that the government will not tolerate actions that threaten public order, he said: “They face serious charges, including incitement to sedition and sedition.”
There were reports of internet restrictions in the commercial capital Douala and other parts of the country on Wednesday and Thursday, confirmed by internet monitor NetBlocks. State operator Camtel blamed the connection outages on a “technical incident involving the Wacs cable” and said service was being gradually restored in “certain areas”.
The Honorable Cameroon National Episcopal Conference called for calm. “Our prayer is that with God’s help and the determination of everyone, our country will actually experience peace and stability and emerge stronger,” Andrew Fuanya Nkea, archbishop of Bamenda and president of the NECC, said in a statement Tuesday.
