Amnesty International calls for immediate release of Cameroon youth organization’s detained supporters – JURIST

Amnesty International called on Cameroonian authorities on Thursday to immediately release three supporters of a youth organization—Moustapha Tizi, Mohamadou Ballo, and Ibrahim Oumarou—and their relatives.

Tizi, Ballo, and Oumarou were allegedly arrested on September 9 in Figuil, Cameroon for wearing shirts with the name of the organization they supported “Pouvoir au Peuple Camerounais” (PPC) on it. The sister of a PPC spokesperson, Hapsatou Issa, was also allegedly arrested on September 9 and her son, who brought his detained mother food, was also arrested. According to Amnesty International, the detainees were subsequently transferred to various detention centers in Garoua, Cameroon on September 13.

Fabien Offner, a researcher at Amnesty International’s West and Central Africa office, condemned the arrests. He said:

In recent years, anyone who dares criticize the authorities, whether a human rights defender, a journalist, an activist for the Anglophone cause or a demonstrator, runs the risk of being arbitrarily arrested and detained, tortured and tried by military courts in violation of the country’s international human rights obligations. Unfortunately, this trend is likely to increase as the presidential election approaches[.]

Amnesty International also noted that activist Junior Ngombe was allegedly arbitrarily detained from July 24 to 31 after he criticized another activist’s arrest on TikTok.

Relatedly, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk said he “called on political parties, across the spectrum, to commit publicly to the human rights cause, notably to ensuring the rights to freedom of expression and of peaceful assembly will be defended in the context of the 2025 and 2026 elections” upon visiting Cameroon in August.

Transparency International currently ranks Cameroon’s public sector as one of the 40 most corrupt in the world, with a corruption perceptions index score of 27 out of 100.