Cameroon: Released Photo Journalist Denounces Search of His Bamenda Residence

All seem not to be well for some 50 Southern Cameroonians released from jail in Cameroon’s capital Yaounde by a presidential clemency in the wake of the eleven months conflict that is still gripping the two English speaking regions of the country.

Hans Achomba : Free but In Chains 

This is the case of Hans Achomba released on August 31 2017 from Kondengui prison where he spent eight months for no crime committed and for doing his work. He was arrested for covering a public event organised by opposition parliamentarian Hon Wirba Joseph.

Concordant reports from North West of Cameroon indicate that gun toting gendarmes and soldiers visited his Bamenda residence on September 27 2017, in his absence.

‘I don’t know what they wanted. They got into our home and searched everywhere, opening even my new born baby’s boxes. They also demanded the whereabouts of my husband,’ Hans Achomba’s wife, Lontum Lilian Achomba, said, expressing worries about the harassment on the family.

The harassment and intimidation on Hans Achomba continued shortly after his release from jail.

Achomba, Bar Balla : Prison Graduates

‘Four days after our release, I went to the public security in Old Town a locality in Bamenda, to have my ID issued. They dragged me into an office and four commissioners of police questioned me fiercely for almost two hours.  Why are we causing trouble, fighting the government etc etc.

Now they have gone to my home and intimidated my family. They have gone to my home and touched my little baby during their search. What do they want from me? I can’t even get a new passport because I am flagged… 

The different officers are saying that said I live in South Afric, the place where all the trouble to La Republic du Cameroon is coming from. Why was I released and yet I am not so free,’ he questioned.

In Line of Duty

Others who were released alongside Hans Achomba are raising similar concerns. ‘I can’t even move freely. I have simply abandoned my house. When Southern Cameroonians took to the streets in areas that had remain not too concerned, they suspect that I am the organiser. 

They are wasting their time. Even if the kill all of us, it would not solve the problem. Instead of looking for ways to end the tension, they are harassing people all over the place,’ one other recently released detainee, who did not wish to be named said.

Meanwhile on September 24 some other detainees who were not released were taken to the military tribunal in Yaounde. According to family members of those still in captivity, the names of two journalists who were released were on the list of those taken to court.