Detained TikToker from Cameroon released

A young activist who was jailed by Cameroonian authorities last week for promoting democratic reform in the nation ahead of the 2019 presidential election has been freed, according to his attorneys. The activist had posted a video on TikTok.

Junior Ngombe, 23, has a main attorney named Barrister Akere Muna. On Wednesday, Muna told the Yaoundé media that the activist had been given bail and that no charges had yet been brought against him.

The attorney, an opposition lawmaker, stated, “After the investigation, authorities may decide to either drop the case or press charges.”

Ngombe is a hairdresser and social media influencer who has over 12,000 followers on TikTok. He was seized on July 24 in Douala, the country’s second city, and transferred to the State Defence Secretariat (SED), better known as the gendarmerie headquarters, in Yaoundé, the capital, where he was detained.

The action sparked intense condemnation, with rights activists seeing it as a clampdown by President Paul Biya’s administration on free speech.

Human Rights Watch reported that Cameroon’s freedom of association and expression has been progressively curtailed.

Ngombe was first brought to a Douala gendarmerie post. The following day, he was moved to Yaoundé’s SED, a gendarmerie-run prison facility, where HRW claimed to have previously recorded “widespread use of torture”.

Human Rights Watch said in a statement on Monday that “Cameroonian authorities should listen to peaceful demands for reform instead of stifling freedom of expression.”

Ngombe promoted political reform, questioned the government’s intolerance of criticism, and urged people to register to vote in the presidential election scheduled for February 2025 in a number of TikTok videos.

In one of the videos, he questions whether the system won’t rig the results even if Cameroon’s youth register significantly in advance of the presidential election the following year.

Ngombe states in French, “I know many of you have not yet registered for the presidential election — no worries, I know you will.” “I’ve already registered for the election, but I’m aware that the ruling Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement will stop at nothing to win, even if millions of us do the same.”

Senior HRW Sahel researcher Ilaria Allegrozzi praised Ngombe’s release for Cameroon but demanded the dismissal of all accusations against him.

“Prison is not his place,” she wrote on X. “He never ought to have been taken into custody in the first place.”

Days after officials issued a warning against using “irreverent or offensive” rhetoric against President Biya, the young activist was arrested.

The government spokesman and minister of communication, Rene Emmanuel Sadi, issued the warning in response to harsh criticism of the 91-year-old president’s decision to prolong his four-decade rule once his current term ends next year.