Press Release

To peacefully resolve the current instability in Cameroon, the government should discuss plans for political and economic reform with the public, Freedom House said today.

Recent violence claimed at least 20 lives in the country’s worst unrest in over 15 years. While protests and riots focused on increased fuel and food prices, tensions have run high in the country since December, when President Paul Biya suggested he might alter the constitution to seek a third term in office. President Biya, 75, has been in office for 25 years.

 “As a first step, President Biya must immediately lift the restrictions on freedom of association and restrain his security forces,” says Jennifer Windsor, executive director of Freedom House.  “We also strongly disapprove of the president’s plan to modify Cameroon’s constitution in order to allow him to seek a third mandate, ostensibly making him president for life.”

The government responded to the unrest with excessive force—in some cases lethal—and by banning rallies in one of the country’s main cities. Unconfirmed accounts report of harassment and disappearances of human rights defenders and ordinary citizens. 

“Citizens need some forum in which they can express themselves peacefully,” said Ozong Agborsangaya-Fiteu, senior program manager for Africa at Freedom House. “There is clear frustration over the country’s political and economic situation, and the government has a responsibility to respond to citizens’ concerns--not to attack them.”

“What this situation desperately requires is a genuine dialogue between government and the public,” she added.

Democratic reform is needed urgently in Cameroon. The country is not an electoral democracy, state institutions are extremely weak, and freedom of the press is limited. One of the most corrupt countries in the world, the judiciary is highly subject to political influence.

Cameroon is ranked Not Free and was given a downward trend arrow in the 2008 edition of Freedom in the World, Freedom House’s survey of political rights and civil liberties, as well as in the 2007 version of Freedom of the Press.

For more information on Cameroon, visit:

Freedom in the World 2007: Cameroon
Freedom of the Press 2007: Cameroon

Freedom House, an independent nongovernmental organization that supports the expansion of freedom in the world, has been monitoring political rights and civil liberties in Cameroon since 1972.