YAOUNDE, Cameroon — Rights teams in Cameroon disputed Thursday the federal government’s loss of life toll of 16 killed throughout protests over the election victory of President Paul Biya final month, claiming the precise determine is almost double.
Philippe Nanga, coordinator of the rights group A World for the Future, informed The Related Press the official toll is an undercount and expressed concern in regards to the difficulties in accessing the corpses.
“About 30 individuals have been killed and a few corpses have been faraway from hospital morgues by safety forces and their whereabouts stay unknown,” Nanga mentioned.
Cameroon’s Inside Minister Paul Atanga Nji had mentioned Wednesday that safety forces killed 13 protesters within the financial hub of Douala, and three others within the North Area. It was the federal government’s first official touch upon the loss of life toll because the unrest started.
Nji additionally mentioned over 800 arrests have been made.
Opposition figures estimate the loss of life toll at 55, based on a Human Rights Watch report printed Wednesday.
“The violent crackdown on protesters and odd residents throughout Cameroon lays naked a deepening sample of repression that casts a darkish cloud over the election” Ilaria Allegrozzi, senior Africa researcher at Human Rights Watch, mentioned within the report.
“The authorities ought to instantly rein in, examine and prosecute accountable safety forces, and all political leaders ought to name on their supporters to reject violence,” she wrote within the report.
The protests erupted in key opposition strongholds, together with Douala and in northern cities like Maroua and Garoua, after the outcomes of the Oct. 12 presidential election have been introduced.
Paul Biya, 92, who’s the world’s oldest president, gained the vote and secured his eighth time period, based on official outcomes, which have been contested by the opposition, together with presidential rival Issa Tchiroma Bakary, who claims to have gained the election and has known as on Cameroonians to reject the official consequence.
Biya has been in energy since 1982, practically half his lifetime, making him Cameroon’s second president since independence from France in 1960.
He’s hardly ever seen in public and critics say his capability to manipulate has been severely restricted by his age.
