ANALYSIS

Cameroon, one year after the vote: protesters before a military court, those who fired before no one

20 October 2026 — Yaoundé / Bamenda

The background

In July we reported on the complaint filed in Paris by opposition leader Issa Tchiroma Bakary against President Paul Biya (Cameroon: election crackdown lands in a Paris court). A year has passed since the vote, and this piece looks at what happened next: who has been tried, who has not, and the war that continues in the Anglophone regions.

On 12 October 2025 Cameroon voted for president. On 27 October the Constitutional Council declared Paul Biya, aged 92, the winner with 53.66%, against 35.19% for Tchiroma; fewer than one voter in two turned out (Hespress). Tchiroma declared himself the winner and left the country. The protests that followed were put down.

The facts

The protests and the dead. On 30 October 2025 the UN Human Rights Office said it was alarmed by reports of people killed during the protests. It urged the security forces not to use lethal force and called for prompt and impartial inquiries into all election-related violence (OHCHR, via GlobalSecurity). According to Human Rights Watch, the security forces used tear gas and live ammunition; the dead were between 48 and 55, and lawyers estimated up to 2,000 arrests. HRW also notes that some protests turned violent, with roadblocks and buildings ransacked (JURIST).

Figures that do not match. The government speaks of 16 dead and more than 800 arrests. A coalition of some thirty Cameroonian associations led by the NGO Un Monde Avenir presented a toll of 706 dead, 40 summary executions and 1,494 arbitrary arrests to the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights in May 2026. The method has not been made public, and the NGO itself admits it could not access hospitals (Camer.be, via allAfrica). The gap between 16 and 706 is huge, and it is exactly what an independent inquiry should clear up.

Who has been tried. On 8 October 2026 the military court in Yaoundé tried 66 people arrested after the vote and convicted all of them of spreading false news, rebellion, unlawful assembly and failing to carry an identity card. Sentences range from six months suspended to fifteen months in prison; the last should be released in February. About a hundred other detainees represented by the same defence team are awaiting trial (RFI, via allAfrica).

Who has not been tried. No trial is on record for the deaths during the protests. Anicet Ekane, 74, leader of the opposition party Manidem, died on 1 December 2025 at the gendarmerie's medical centre in Yaoundé, where he had been held since 24 October without being brought before a judge. His family says the oxygen concentrator he needed had been taken from him. The Defence Ministry says he suffered from chronic illnesses and was properly cared for. The government announced an inquiry; the family asked for an independent commission and, as of January, had received no answer (Camer.be).

The Paris complaint. The two complaints Tchiroma filed in June with the Paris court, under universal jurisdiction, have received no public response. In August a diaspora association sent the prosecutor a memorandum urging that they be examined; there is no record of an investigation being opened (Camer.be, via allAfrica).

The war in the Anglophone regions. Since 2016, in the North-West and South-West, the army has been fighting armed groups that want independence for the two English-speaking regions, which they call Ambazonia. More than 6,500 people have been killed, at least 334,000 are internally displaced and more than 76,000 have fled to Nigeria (Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect). On 14 January 2026, in Gidado, in Donga-Mantung division, fighters identified by the authorities as separatists killed 14 civilians from the Mbororo herding community, almost all women and children, according to the regional governor (Journal du Cameroun). From 7 September 2026 separatists imposed a week-long lockdown to stop the school year from starting, threatening to kill anyone who left their home (IANS/Xinhua, via NewKerala).

Attention. In June 2026 the Norwegian Refugee Council again listed Cameroon among the ten most neglected displacement crises in the world; the year before it was ranked first (Euronews). Since 2019 the UN Security Council has devoted only one meeting to Cameroon, an informal one on the humanitarian situation.

Legal commentary

Civilians before military judges. Cameroon is a party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which guarantees a fair trial before an independent and impartial tribunal (art. 14). The UN Committee that monitors the Covenant has written that trials of civilians before military courts must be the exception, allowed only when the state shows that ordinary courts cannot handle them. The UN Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges has gone further: as a rule, military jurisdiction over civilians is incompatible with fair and independent justice (UN, A/HRC/14/26/Add.1). A protester accused of spreading false news or of not carrying an identity card has nothing military about him.

Why a military court. In Cameroon the law opens the way. The 2017 Code of Military Justice (Law No. 2017/012) states in Article 8 that the military court is "solely competent" for terrorism offences and those "relating to the security of the State", and for "all related offences" (Law No. 2017/012, UNODC). The last phrase is the key: a charge of false news or unlawful assembly, if linked to a charge against state security, ends up before military judges. Article 4 also allows the military court in Yaoundé to try cases across the whole country in the event of a "serious threat to public order". After the vote, lawyers told Human Rights Watch that those arrested were also charged with "hostility against the homeland", "insurrection" and "rebellion", offences that in some cases carry the death penalty (HRW, 12/11/2025). In January 142 defendants were tried in summary proceedings before the same court; the October convictions came on much lighter charges. It is not the first time: in 2020, 36 opposition protesters were sentenced by a military court to five to seven years (Amnesty International, 2025), and the American Bar Association notes that the 2014 anti-terrorism law is used to bring human rights defenders and journalists before military judges (ABA, 2024).

The duty to investigate. When state agents kill during a protest, or a person dies in state custody, the state is obliged to open a prompt, independent and effective inquiry: this follows from the right to life (art. 6 of the Covenant). In Ekane's case the obligation is stricter, because he was held without a judge and the state was responsible for his health. An inquiry entrusted to the same gendarmerie that held him is not independent.

The war. The conflict in the Anglophone regions is a non-international armed conflict: for both sides, Article 3 common to the Geneva Conventions applies, prohibiting the killing of civilians, hostage-taking and attacks on those not taking part in the fighting. The Gidado massacre and the threats against anyone leaving home during the lockdown fall under these prohibitions, as does the destruction of villages attributed to the army in past years.

Symmetry test

• The government tried protesters before a military court and has tried no one for the deaths during the protests or for Ekane's death.
• Some protesters used violence, with roadblocks and looting: it is right that they answer for it, but before an ordinary judge and on proportionate charges.
• The opposition's figures must be treated with the same caution as the government's. The toll of 706 dead is far higher than HRW's, and the method is not public.
• The separatists kill civilians, abduct people and close schools at gunpoint. The Anglophone cause has real roots, but it does not justify the children killed in Gidado or those left without school.

Our assessment

This section expresses the site's position. It is separate from the facts set out above.

One year after the vote, justice in Cameroon has worked in one direction only. The protesters were tried by military judges on charges such as false news and unlawful assembly. Those who fired on them have, as far as the record shows, been tried by no one. And the death in custody of a 74-year-old opposition leader has been left to an inquiry by those who held him.

Cameroon does not make the news because it never seems to change: the same president for forty-four years, the same war for ten, the same lockdowns every September. But stillness is not neutral. Where there are no trials, the figures stay far apart, from 16 to 706, everyone believes their own and no one can disprove anyone. And where the Security Council does not meet, a war that has killed thousands goes on not existing for the rest of the world.

What to watch

• The other trials before the military court and the appeals of the 66 convicted.
• The outcome of the inquiry into Anicet Ekane's death.
• A decision by the Paris prosecutor on Tchiroma's complaints.
• The reopening of schools in the Anglophone regions and new attacks on civilians.

Sources: Hespress · OHCHR, via GlobalSecurity · JURIST · Camer.be, via allAfrica · RFI, via allAfrica · Camer.be · Camer.be, via allAfrica · Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect · Journal du Cameroun · IANS/Xinhua, via NewKerala · Euronews · UN, A/HRC/14/26/Add.1 · Law No. 2017/012, UNODC · HRW, 12/11/2025 · Amnesty International, 2025 · ABA, 2024

Related pieces: Cameroon: election crackdown lands in a Paris court, as the Anglophone crisis turns ten

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