Cameroon on Wednesday provisionally released an activist imprisoned after he posted videos on TikTok urging democratic change ahead of next year’s presidential elections, his lawyer said.
Hairdresser and social media activist Junior Ngombe, 23, was arrested outside his shop in the western city of Douala on Wednesday last week by three plainclothes men claiming to be intelligence officers, Human Rights Watch said.
“Ngombe was granted bail under a guarantor’s undertaking at the Yaounde military court, where he was on trial,” his lawyer Serge Emmanuel Chendjou said. “It is a provisional release granted by the government commissioner at the military court.”
Photo: AFP
Ngombe’s arrest prompted an outcry over what international human rights groups call a growing crackdown on freedom of expression under 91-year-old Cameroonian President Paul Biya, who has been in power for 42 years.
Ngombe’s lawyers said he had been charged with “incitement to rebellion” and “propagation of false information,” which they believe to be linked to videos he posted on social media.
In his posts on TikTok, Ngombe encouraged people to vote in the presidential election and challenged the Cameroonian authorities’ crackdown on dissent.
“In 2025, either we win, or we lose everything,” he said, urging authorities to “let the youth express themselves” in the Central African country.
Since his arrest, civil society and opposition figures had clamored for his release, using the hashtag #FreeJuniorNgombe on social media.
Biya and his government are regularly accused by international human rights organizations of repressing all opposition. The long-serving president was re-elected in 2018 to his seventh term after a contested vote that sparked a wave of political repression.
Yemen’s separatist leader has vowed to keep working for an independent state in the country’s south, in his first social media post since he disappeared earlier this month after his group briefly seized swathes of territory. Aidarous al-Zubaidi’s United Arab Emirates (UAE)-backed Southern Transitional Council (STC) forces last month captured two Yemeni provinces in an offensive that was rolled back by Saudi strikes and Riyadh’s allied forces on the ground. Al-Zubaidi then disappeared after he failed to board a flight to Riyadh for talks earlier this month, with Saudi Arabia accusing him of fleeing to Abu Dhabi, while supporters insisted he was
‘SHOCK TACTIC’: The dismissal of Yang mirrors past cases such as Jang Song-thaek, Kim’s uncle, who was executed after being accused of plotting to overthrow his nephew North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has fired his vice premier, compared him to a goat and railed against “incompetent” officials, state media reported yesterday, in a rare and very public broadside against apparatchiks at the opening of a critical factory. Vice Premier Yang Sung-ho was sacked “on the spot,” the state-run Korean Central News Agency said, in a speech in which Kim attacked “irresponsible, rude and incompetent leading officials.” “Please, comrade vice premier, resign by yourself when you can do it on your own before it is too late,” Kim reportedly said. “He is ineligible for an important duty. Put simply, it was
The Chinese Embassy in Manila yesterday said it has filed a diplomatic protest against a Philippine Coast Guard spokesman over a social media post that included cartoonish images of Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平). Philippine Coast Guard spokesman Jay Tarriela and an embassy official had been trading barbs since last week over issues concerning the disputed South China Sea. The crucial waterway, which Beijing claims historic rights to despite an international ruling that its assertion has no legal basis, has been the site of repeated clashes between Chinese and Philippine vessels. Tarriela’s Facebook post on Wednesday included a photo of him giving a
Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa on Sunday announced a deal with the chief of Kurdish-led forces that includes a ceasefire, after government troops advanced across Kurdish-held areas of the country’s north and east. Syrian Kurdish leader Mazloum Abdi said he had agreed to the deal to avoid a broader war. He made the decision after deadly clashes in the Syrian city of Raqa on Sunday between Kurdish-led forces and local fighters loyal to Damascus, and fighting this month between the Kurds and government forces. The agreement would also see the Kurdish administration and forces integrate into the state after months of stalled negotiations on
RSS