Yearbook 2004
Cameroon. The total population in Cameroon is 26,545,874 people in 2020. President Paul Biya was re-elected in October with almost 71% of the vote. The victory was facilitated by the split within the opposition, which sought to bring forward Adamou Ndam Njoya as joint candidate. However, veteran John Fru Ndi argued that the election of Njoya was not democratic and also ran for office. Mrs Ndi received just over 17% and Njoya only 4.5%. President Biya has ruled Cameroon since 1982. In a government reshuffle in December, he appointed his head of office Ephraim Inoni as new prime minister.
Dozens of former public servants and directors of state corporations were arrested, accused of corruption. Several of them stated that the charges were due to political disagreements and jealousy.
In November 2010, the author Bertrand Teyou published La belle de la republic bananière: Chantal Biya, de la rue au palais (Queen of the Banana Republic. The regime responded again by sentencing Teyou to 2½ years in prison for defamation and for trying to read aloud from his book at a public meeting. Amnesty and PEN went into the case, and after 5 months they succeeded in getting the author released against PEN paying his fine.
Biya was re-elected as President in October 2011 with 77.9% of the vote. His closest rival, John Mrs. Ndi had to settle for 10%. By the opposition, he was accused of extensive electoral fraud, and even the country’s allies France and the United States noted significant irregularities. Biya has maintained its close relationship with France and spends much of the year at luxury hotels in Geneva.
Opposition is constantly being pursued in the country. Three members of the Southern Cameroon National Council (Southern Cameroons National Council, SCNC), Felix Ngalim, Ebeneza Akwanga and Makam Adamu were arrested in April 2012 accused of detachment and revolution. Ngalim was tortured and imprisoned for the rest of the year until he was released in December pending a subsequent trial. The authorities are notorious for their transgression with such cases. Dozens of SCNC members were arrested in 2008, accused of holding secret meetings and failing to show ID cards. They had attended more than 30 hearings, but an actual case had not yet been brought by the prosecution because of the lack of witnesses on the prosecutor’s side.
In December 2012, Dieudonné Enoh Meyomesse was sentenced to 7 years in prison at a military court in Yaoundé. Meyomesse is a writer and had written critical articles on President Biya. The trial was a farce and he is being treated by the international human rights organizations as a political prisoner. He and several co-accused had been arrested in November 2011 and were sentenced to 2-9 years in prison.
In November 2012, Biya celebrated her 30th day in power. The opposition had organized a series of demonstrations that were resolved by the security police. Corruption is widespread and a growing problem. In September, a former minister was sentenced to 25 years in prison for swindling $ 29 million US $ of state funds.
In December 2014, the regime enacted a far-reaching “terror law”, which resulted in drastic restrictions on personal liberties, and extended the death penalty to a host of new “crimes”.