Culled from Actu 24
Following the statement from the Ministry of Defense regarding the video of Longue Longue’s torture, Maurice Kamto, the national president of the Cameroon Renaissance Movement (MRC), made a declaration this Friday, October 25, 2024:
A rare moment of consensus marks the Cameroonian political class. Maurice Kamto , like other personalities, welcomes the opening of an investigation by the Ministry of Defense following the release of the video showing the violence inflicted on Longue Longue. With this statement from the Mindef, the politician believes it is unprecedented to see Paul Biya’s government wanting to break with the indifference that, according to him, has always characterized it in the face of violence involving the security forces.
“The Government of the Republic finally seems willing to break its indifference towards the barbarity of certain elements of the security forces. At least, that is the impression that could be drawn from the statement signed by the Director of Communication of the Ministry of Defense dated October 24, 2024, following a video showing the cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment inflicted on the musician Longue Longue”, he explained in a statement this Friday.
The politician did not fail to remind the Mindef of the existence of many other serious cases of torture perpetrated against peaceful citizens by the security forces, which have never been followed up. “I will limit myself here to the cases concerning MRC activists and sympathizers during the massive, arbitrary, and illegal arrests of October 2018, January and February 2019, and September 2020”, he claimed before adding: “I myself have been a victim, as well as the first Vice-President of our party, Mr. Mamadou Mota, who came out with a broken arm, and his degrading image thrown to the public. Among the cases of several hundred victims of such treatments, I cannot fail to mention the cruel and unbearable cases of Mr. Wambo on October 27, 2018, in Douala, whose arm was broken by a gendarme with the butt of his rifle in front of a stunned public, and Mr. Gaëtan NGANKAM, who was shot at point-blank range by a policeman on hierarchical orders, on January 26, 2019, in Douala. The video of the horrific scene went around the world”.
“The torturers of Mr. Nana Serge Branco, Patrick Donald KopwaDjenko, who are now permanently disabled, and dozens of other MRC activists are also identified. Irrefutable evidence of the acts of these torturers is available and awaits, as in this case of torture of the artist Longue Longue, for the Government to finally order the opening of investigations. We are ready to provide the competent authorities, whether administrative or judicial, with the list of victims along with the evidence of the acts of torture inflicted on them, as well as the list of the perpetrators of these acts, whether they are the torturers or their superior officers who gave the orders”, concluded Maurice Kamto.
