One protester was killed in Cameroon as police and gendarmes put down protests against Cameroonian President Paul Biya, the country’s main opposition party said on Tuesday, while accusing security forces of laying siege to their leader’s home.
Police and gendarmes fired tear gas and water cannons to break up protests in Douala, calling for an end to Biya’s near 40-year rule, witnesses told reporters.
The rally was called by 87-year-old Biya’s closest rival, Maurice Kamto, of the Cameroon Renaissance Movement (CRM), who hopes to spark a popular revolt as seen in other African nations such as Mali and Burkina Faso.
Photo: AFP
Kamto’s home was in a “state of siege,” surrounded by tanks and heavily armed gendarmes, CRM senior member Joseph Ateba said.
Hundreds of people have been arrested across the country, including CRM treasurer Alain Fogue and Kamto’s spokesman, Olivier Bibou Nissack, Ateba said.
“He is accused of rebellion and hostility to the homeland, among other things,” said Jeanne Edith Bibou, Nissack’s wife.
The police referred requests for comment to the Cameroonian Ministry of Territorial Administration and Decentralization, which could not be immediately reached.
Security forces had packed the streets of Cameroon’s largest cities, including the capital Yaounde, in recent days in anticipation of the demonstrations, raising concern among residents of a return to the kind of violent crackdowns on protests over the past few years.
Hundreds of people gathered in the Ndokoti commercial district of Douala chanting: “Biya must go.”
Police, who camped out in trucks at major intersections, chased some of the protesters across the neighborhood and into their houses, witnesses said.
Long a bastion of calm in a turbulent region, Cameroon has descended into chaos over the past few years as Biya fights Islamist insurgents in its far north and separatist rebels in the west.
Biya is also under pressure from political advocates in urban centers who want change, saying that he has stolen elections and is the mastermind of a series of deadly backlashes against those who oppose him.
The government denies those charges.
Biya won a 2018 election that Kamto said was fraudulent.
Kamto was jailed for nine months last year on insurrection charges following a protest.
He was later pardoned, but his arrest galvanized the opposition and has led to protests ever since.
CHAGOS ISLANDS: Recently elected Mauritian Prime Minister Navin Ramgoolam told lawmakers that the contents of negotiations are ‘unknown’ to the government Mauritius’ new prime minister ordered an independent review of a deal with the UK involving a strategically important US-UK military base in the Indian Ocean, placing the agreement under fresh scrutiny. Under a pact signed last month, the UK ceded sovereignty of the Chagos archipelago to Mauritius, while retaining control of Diego Garcia — the island where the base is situated. The deal was signed by then-Mauritian prime minister Pravind Jugnauth and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Oct. 3 — a month before elections in Mauritius in which Navin Ramgoolam became premier. “I have asked for an independent review of the
France on Friday showed off to the world the gleaming restored interior of Notre-Dame cathedral, a week before the 850-year-old medieval edifice reopens following painstaking restoration after the devastating 2019 fire. French President Emmanuel Macron conducted an inspection of the restoration, broadcast live on television, saying workers had done the “impossible” by healing a “national wound” after the fire on April 19, 2019. While every effort has been made to remain faithful to the original look of the cathedral, an international team of designers and architects have created a luminous space that has an immediate impact on the visitor. The floor shimmers and
THIRD IN A ROW? An expert said if the report of a probe into the defense official is true, people would naturally ask if it would erode morale in the military Chinese Minister of National Defense Dong Jun (董軍) has been placed under investigation for corruption, a report said yesterday, the latest official implicated in a crackdown on graft in the country’s military. Citing current and former US officials familiar with the situation, British newspaper the Financial Times said that the investigation into Dong was part of a broader probe into military corruption. Neither the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs nor the Chinese embassy in Washington replied to a request for confirmation yesterday. If confirmed, Dong would be the third Chinese defense minister in a row to fall under investigation for corruption. A former navy
‘VIOLATIONS OF DISCIPLINE’: Miao Hua has come up through the political department in the military and he was already fairly senior before Xi Jinping came to power in 2012 A member of China’s powerful Central Military Commission has been suspended and put under investigation, the Chinese Ministry of National Defense said on Thursday. Miao Hua (苗華) was director of the political work department on the commission, which oversees the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), the world’s largest standing military. He was one of five members of the commission in addition to its leader, Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平). Ministry spokesman Colonel Wu Qian (吳謙) said Miao is under investigation for “serious violations of discipline,” which usually alludes to corruption. It is the third recent major shakeup for China’s defense establishment. China in June
RSS