By Emmanuel Nduka Obisue
Cameroonian opposition figure, Anicet Ekane, died on Monday while in detention in Yaounde, according to the vice president of his party, the African Movement for the New Independence of Cameroon (Manidem).
Valentin Dongmo, who confirmed Ekane’s death to AFP, said the 74-year-old had been transferred to Yaounde following his arrest in Douala at the end of October. The exact circumstances surrounding his death remain unclear.
Ekane, a left-wing nationalist politician, was arrested on October 24, a day before the official release of presidential election results, which returned 92-year-old President Paul Biya to office for an eighth term. He was known to be an ally of fellow opposition figure Issa Tchiroma Bakary, who had contested Biya’s decades-long hold on power after the October 12 election.
According to Dongmo, Ekane was initially detained in Douala before being moved to the State Defence Secretariat (SED) in Yaounde, where his health allegedly began to deteriorate.
“We repeatedly alerted the authorities, including the military court administration, requesting that Anicet Ekane be transferred to a hospital with the appropriate facilities for better care, but our requests did not receive a favourable response,” Dongmo told AFP. He added that Ekane’s supporters had renewed calls for a medical evacuation just a day before his death.
Ekane, along with several other political figures, had been arrested for publicly supporting Bakary’s self-declared presidential victory prior to the announcement of official results. Manidem criticised the arrests as “arbitrary” and aimed at intimidating citizens.
Born in 1951 in Douala, Ekane joined the Union of the Peoples of Cameroon (UPC) in 1973 before later founding Manidem in 1995. He was previously arrested in 1990 alongside members of the Yondo Black group and tried in a military court before receiving a presidential pardon months later.
Ekane led Manidem for years and represented the party as its presidential candidate in 2004 and 2011.
News of his death has sparked widespread reactions on social media, with supporters and political observers expressing shock and calling for clarity on the conditions of his detention.
