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| President of Consortium, Barrister Nkongho Felix Agbor Balla |
Amnesty International has called on
Cameroon authorities to “immediately and unconditionally release two civil
society leaders arrested in the English-speaking part of the country.”
The
demand for the release of Barrister Nkongho Felix Agbor-Balla and Dr. FontemAforteka’aNeba,
President and Secretary General of the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society
Consortium (CACSC) respectively, was made on January 20.
The
UK-based global rights movement also called on Cameroon authorities to lift a
ban imposed on the Southern Cameroons National Council (SCNC) and the Cameroon
Anglophone Civil Society Consortium (CACSC). The Minister of Territorial
Administration and Decentralisation had on January 17, 2017, outlawed the
groups and their activities.
“These
two men have been arrested solely for the peaceful exercise of their right to
freedom of expression. This flagrant disregard for basic rights risks inflaming
an already tense situation in the English-speaking region of the country and is
clearly an attempt to muzzle dissent,” IlariaAllegrozzi, Amnesty International
Central Africa Researcher said in a statement.
Going
by Amnesty International, the “worrying pattern of arbitrary arrests, detention
and harassment of civil society members is entirely at odds with the
international human rights law and standards that Cameroon has committed to
uphold.”
On
Thursday January 19, the African Bar Association (AFBA) also issued a
statement, condemning the Government for the arrests and detention, describing
it as “illegal.”
The
continental outfit called on government to unconditionally release Barrister
Nkongho Felix Agbor and others, without further delay.
While
calling on Government to return to the dialogue table, Elvis T. Enoh, Director
of Information and Protocol of the African Bar Association, said the AFBA was
willing and ready to assist the Government in dialogue.
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