The government of Cameroon has announced it has achieved a significant breakthrough in its quest for dialogue with the opposition figures which led to the Military Court in Yaoundé military ordering for the release of Maurice Kamto, and all other opponents being held alongside him. This decision to release the opposition figures came after President Paul Biya demanded an end to the legal proceedings against them.

Sources quoting the President of the Military Court say that the court shall acknowledge the Prosecutor’s Office, record the stay of proceedings and order their release if they are not detained for anything other than what they are accused of. The over 102 detainees will be released after administrative formalities necessary for their release, the source said.

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Mr. Kamto has been detained for close to a year after he was arrested with hundreds of his supporters following peaceful demonstrations organized to protest against the results of the last presidential election in Cameroon in which President Paul Biya was once again declared winner. Mr. Kamto and more than 90 of his supporters had since been prosecuted by the military justice system, including a charge of “insurrection”, a crime punishable by the death penalty, even though observers say that such a crime was no longer applied in Cameroon. Their trial began on 6 September and was supposed to resume last week until the decision from President Biya yesterday.

Mr. Biya had announced Friday evening through a tweet that he would stop the proceedings against “some” opposition leaders, including those from the MRC, without specifying whether Mr. Kamto was concerned. President Biya’s announcement came a few hours after the conclusion of the major national dialogue convened to try to put an end to the bloody separatist conflict in the country’s two English-speaking regions.

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In addition to Mr. Kamto, other personalities whose release has been ordered by the court are former economic adviser to President Biya Christian Penda Ekoka, the charismatic Cameroonian lawyer Michèle Ndoki, and the famous rapper Valsero, known for his texts critical of the government.

The detainees and activists are all members of the Cameroon Renaissance Movement (MRC), received warm applause from the people as they were chanting “Kamto, our president, the people have chosen you”. A refrain regularly chanted by his supporters since the re-election of Paul Biya, 86 years old, 37 of whom were in power, to the 2018 presidential election, whose results the MRC contests, considering that their candidate Kamto, who came second, had won it.

The day before, the President had already announced the end of the prosecutions and the release of 333 people arrested in connection with this crisis. Since the beginning of the year, international pressure on Yaoundé to demand a resolution of the crisis in the English-speaking West and to demand Mr. Kamto’s release has intensified.

Kelechi Deca

Kelechi Deca has over two decades of media experience, he has traveled to over 77 countries reporting on multilateral development institutions, international business, trade, travels, culture, and diplomacy. He is also a petrol head with in-depth knowledge of automobiles and the auto industry.