Leaders demand the release of a Gen-Z activist from Cameroon

Leaders of the opposition and civil society have put additional pressure on the Cameroonian administration to free a young activist who has been pushing for increased voter registration and turnout in the nation.

According to local media reports, 23-year-old Junior Ngombe, a social media influencer with over 12,000 followers on TikTok, was taken into custody in the nation’s largest city, Douala, and taken to the Gendarmerie headquarters, also known as the State Defense Secretariat (SED), in the capital Yaounde. He has been detained there since Wednesday.

The “Gen-Z activist” was detained for an unspecified cause; however, he had previously been arrested for criticizing the People’s Democratic Movement (CPDM) administration in Cameroon in a video that had been released.

He urges young Cameroonians to massively register ahead of the elections next year in the video that has received over 75,000 reactions, over 7,700 likes, and over 1,400 comments. However, he also expresses regret that even if they do so, the system would still take their votes.

The young people speak in French, “I know many of you have not yet registered for the presidential elections — no worries, I know you will do.”

“I have already registered for the election, but I am aware that the CPDM will make every effort to win, even if millions of people do the same.

We have so decided that by 2025, we will either have won or ruined everything. With the CPDM, we have nothing to discuss or negotiate. It is preferable if they murder us.

Many people both inside and beyond the nation demanded his quick release following his detention and relocation to Yaounde, which sparked a wave of reactions.

Prof. Maurice Kamto, the leader of the opposition, “solemnly” pleaded with President Paul Biya to order the young compatriot’s immediate release, saying that “he embodies the conscious and hopeful youth through his responsible and peaceful civic actions; the one who, far from distraction, questions its future and that of our nation.”

The young activist has distinguished himself by his commitment to peaceful change at the polls, according to a statement released on July 26 by Prof. Kamto, president of the Cameroon Renaissance Movement, who finished second in the nation’s most recent presidential election. This calls for a mass registration of young people who are at least 20 years old and have reached voting age in the country.

“Junior Ngombe definitely ended up agitating those inside the State apparatus who conceived and conceitedly assumed a conspiracy against freedom and democracy in Cameroon through his informative and convincing presentations.

Prof. Kamto stated, “This drift needs to be stopped immediately because it does not look good for our nation on the eve of a pivotal presidential election.”

The young activist should be released, according to Barrister Akere Muna, an anti-corruption consultant and one of the nine contenders in the nation’s most recent presidential election. Muna claimed the activist was within his rights to voice his concerns and anxieties regarding his uncertain future, which is protected by the constitution.

“Despite the difficulties he encounters, he is nevertheless optimistic about Cameroon’s future.

“He is in a precarious situation within his own country, but he hasn’t taken the risks of traveling through dangerous regions like the Sahara or the Mediterranean,” Mr. Muna added.

“It appears that the state has better protection for the dishonest, avaricious, and corrupt people implicated in the Glencore issue than for a young person raising valid concerns.

He went on, “This arrest is one too many.”

The US Department of Justice claims that between 2007 and 2018, Glencore and its subsidiaries forced payments totaling about $79.6 million to intermediary firms in an effort to obtain unfair advantages for securing and maintaining business with state-owned and state-controlled entities in Equatorial Guinea, Nigeria, Cameroon, and Ivory Coast.

By engaging into fraudulent consultancy agreements, paying false invoices, and utilizing middlemen organizations to make unethical payments to foreign officials, Glencore was able to hide the bribe payments.

In 2022, Glencore International A.G. and Glencore Ltd., two entities of a global commodity trading and mining company with its headquarters located in Switzerland, entered guilty pleas and made a payment of more than $1.1 billion to conclude the inquiries into potential FCPA violations and manipulation of commodity prices.

Maximilienne Ngo Mbe, the 2021 International Women of Courage Awardee and leading human rights advocate from Cameroon, has also urged for the activist’s release, claiming that she poses no threat to the nation.

The head of the Network of Human Rights Defenders of Central Africa (Redhac), located in Douala, Ms. Ngo Mbe, said on her official Facebook page that she had met with Mr. Ngombe’s mother and a few other well-known people to discuss how she might support him.

“The 23-year-old was educating his friends about civic engagement.” Cameroon is not threatened by him.

She wrote, “He needs to be freed immediately and without conditions.”

Since Friday, the hashtag #FreeJuniorNgombe—or, in French, #LiberezJuniorNgombe—has become popular on social media.

Days after officials issued a warning against using disrespectful or insensitive language toward President Biya, the young activist was arrested.

The government spokeswoman and minister of communication issued their threat after the 91-year-old president’s decision to prolong his four-decade tenure after it ends next year was sharply criticized.