Amnesty Int’l urges Cameroon authorities to release Kamto

Since the arrest of the leader of the Cameroon Renaissance Movement, reactions have been flowing in from various quarters calling for his release.

The latest of such calls is from Amnesty International that released a statement on Tuesday calling on Cameroonian  authorities to release all those arrested in connection to last weekend’s protests.

“The Cameroonian authorities must immediately and unconditionally release protesters detained simply for exercising their right to peaceful protest at the weekend. No one should face arrest simply for speaking out,” Amnesty International Deputy Regional Director for West and Central Africa Samira Daoud said.

“The crackdown on peaceful protests across several cities undermines the rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly in Cameroon. The authorities must end repression of protests and uphold the country’s constitutional and international human rights obligation,” Samira Daoud said.

Amnesty International also urged Cameroonian authorities to open investigations into attacks on peaceful protesters that led to some of them injured amongst whom were lawyer Michelle Ndoki.

Peaceful demonstrations are systematically banned in Cameroon in a bid to reprss any dissent and more than hundred protesters were arrested over the weekend,”Amnesty Inernational said.

“Several protesters including a lawyer and an activist were beaten and were wounded by shots from security forces. The authorities must undertake a prompt, thorough, impartial and independent investigation into the attacks on peaceful protesters and bring to justice anyone suspected to be responsible.”