• Cameroonian opposition figure Anicet Ekan dies in Yaoundé custody at 74
• MANIDEM says authorities ignored repeated medical evacuation requests
• Ekane was detained after backing Bakary’s disputed challenge to Biya’s re-election
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Cameroonian opposition leader Anicet Ekan has died in detention in Yaoundé, his party, the African Movement for the New Independence of Cameroon (MANIDEM), confirmed on Monday.
Valentin Dongmo, the party’s vice president, told AFP that the 74-year-old politician died after being transferred from Douala following his arrest in late October. The circumstances surrounding his death remain unclear.
Ekane, a left-wing nationalist and longtime critic of President Paul Biya’s rule, was arrested on October 24 — a day before the release of presidential election results that returned the 92-year-old leader to office for an eighth term.
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According to MANIDEM, Ekane was held at the State Defence Secretariat (SED) in Yaoundé, where his health reportedly deteriorated.
The party said it made repeated appeals to authorities, including the military court, requesting that he be moved to a facility with better medical capacity, but none of the requests were granted.
Dongmo added that supporters had again called for Ekane’s medical evacuation a day before his passing.
Ekane and several political allies were arrested for publicly supporting opposition figure Issa Tchiroma Bakary, who had declared himself winner of the October 12 election before the release of official results. MANIDEM described the arrests as “arbitrary” and aimed at intimidating citizens.
Born in Douala in 1951, Ekane joined the Union of the Peoples of Cameroon (UPC) in 1973 before later founding MANIDEM in 1995. He was previously arrested in 1990 as part of the Yondo Black group and was convicted in a military trial before receiving a pardon months later. Ekane also contested the presidency in 2004 and 2011.
His death has sparked widespread reaction across social media and renewed concerns about political repression in Cameroon.
