Tuesday, December 2, 2025 - Cameroon's leading opposition leader, Anicet Ekane, has d!ed after weeks of detention at the age of 74, his lawyers and family said Monday, alleging that he had struggled to breathe but was not given proper care.
Ekane, 74, leader of the African Movement for New
Independence and Democracy (Manidem) party, was arrested on 24 October in
Douala following post-election demonstrations in what his party described as a
"kidnapping" by Cameroonian soldiers.
He was being held at a military garrison in the capital
Yaoundé on charges of hostility against the state, incitement to revolt, and
calls for insurrection, accusations he denied.
Ekane was among opposition figures who objected to the
result of the 12 October election in which Paul Biya, the world’s oldest
president at 92, was declared the winner of another term.
Rival candidate Issa Tchiroma Bakary claimed to have won and
has called on Cameroonians to reject the official result.
Ekane's de@th in detention could heighten tensions in the
central African nation where security forces killed 48 civilians as they
responded to protests against Biya's re-election.
Ekane was barely able to speak during a visit just days
before his death, his lawyer Ngouana Ulrich Juvenal said. His sister, Mariane
Simon-Ekane confirmed the death on Facebook.
Alarmed by the decline in his health, his party
Manidem issued a statement on Sunday calling for his urgent transfer
to another hospital where he could receive "more suitable and
appropriate" medical care.
In an earlier statement on 21 November, his party said that
Ekane's oxygen concentrator and other essential medical devices he needed were
locked in his impounded vehicle at a military police station in the commercial
capital Douala.
The party accused the commander of the station of repeatedly
blocking lawyers' efforts to recover Ekane's medical equipment, calling it a
"flagrant human rights violation" that amounted to a "programmed
k!lling".
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