NW, SW Crisis:

Anglophone Detainee Dies Chained In Hospital Bed
By Doh Bertrand Nua in Yaounde

There has been widespread condemnation following the inhumane treatment given deceased Anglophone detainee, Nganyu Thomas Tangem while undergoing treatment at the Yaounde Central Hospital.
   

Thomas Tangem

Images of the deceased, chained in his sick hospital bed like a hardened criminal, has whipped up bitter sentiments in the minds of many. Separatist fighters and apologists of the armed conflict rocking the two Anglophone regions have used the disturbing pictures to further advanced their claims of Anglophones being hated by the Yaounde regime.
    News of his death was made public Wednesday 5 August 2020 by Barrister Amungwa Nicodemus Esq, Head of the Communication Department of the Defense team of the detained Ambazonia leaders.
    “The chairman of communication and media for the defence team of Ayuk Tabe and other Southern Cameroonian detainees announce with deep regret the death of Tangem Thomas at 10 minutes to six in the morning this August 05th, 2020 at the Yaounde Central Hospital. Pa Tom died in chains to the satisfaction of the prison and justice administrators. The corpse is about now being kept in the mortuary of the Central Hospital Yaounde,” said Amungwa in a statement that went viral across social media.
    Tangem who is said to be a welder was arrested in 2018 on allegations of been a supporter of the armed conflict. He reportedly took ill some five months ago and was only evacuated to the hospital for blood transfusion 25 July 2020 at the point of death after weeks of meningitis attack.
    His death has raised more questions on the detention conditions and treatment given inmates by prison administrators. The 57-year-old was kept under detention at the Kondengui prison for close to two years without trial and in very poor conditions, which led to his deteriorating health condition.
    “The attitude of the Prion Administrator is in gross violation of section 123 of the Criminal Procedure Code of the Republic, The United Nations Declaration on the right to health, the international convention against torture, the Mandela Rules and much more duly ratified by Cameroon,” said his lawyers.
    His death has also been condemned by Barr. Agbor Balla Felix, founder of the Centre for Human Rights and Democracy in Africa, CHRDA. “We have received with dismay the tragic death of Rev. Tangem Thomas at the Yaoundé Central Hospital… CHRDA is concerned with the fact that he was unable to get proper medical attention, a right which is enshrined under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Cameroon Criminal Procedure Code.,” partly read Balla’s post on his Facebook page.
    “…We call on the Cameroonian prison authorities to provide better medical services to inmates and not to subject them to any form of inhumane and degrading treatment his interlocutors that steps are being taken in this direction,” he said.
    To recall is the fact that Shufai Blaise, one of the detained Ambazonia leaders also underwent said treatment at the Military Hospital when he took ill and was rushed there in May this year.