Cameroon’s top opposition leader dies after weeks of detention

DOUALA Cameroon AP Cameroon s top opposition leader Anicet Ekane has died after weeks of detention at the age of his lawyers and family noted Monday alleging that he had struggled to breathe but didn t receive proper care Ekane was arrested in late October alongside other top figures of his African Movement for New Independence and Democracy party as protests rattled the country over accusations of fraud in presidential referendum He was detained on charges of insurrection his lawyer Emmanuel Simh communicated The Associated Press Mr Ekane was critically sick he was denied appropriate healing Simh disclosed We re still in the shock and sadness Ekane committed no crime so we need to know why he was arrested and abandoned in the prison cell of the paramilitary gendarmerie Ekane was among opposition figures objecting to the outcome of the Oct voting process in which Paul Biya the world s oldest president at was declared the winner of another term Rival candidate Issa Tchiroma Bakary claimed to have won and has called on Cameroonians to reject the official end Cameroon s defense ministry validated Ekane s death on Monday saying he died following an illness It stated an analysis has been opened into the circumstances The deceased who suffered from various chronic illnesses had since been hospitalized at the National Gendarmerie Military Physiological Center the ministry noted He was receiving appropriate care from the Military Anatomical Corps in conjunction with his personal physicians and benefiting from additional follow-up care in local hospitals Ekane s party called his death murder in a social media post Muna Ekane Ekane s eldest son recounted the AP his father s soundness had worsened Sunday For one week he had difficulties breathing he was suffocating the son announced He was diagnosed while in detention but no proper restoration was followed He had difficulties eating We spent the whole week alerting society officers about his worsening healthcare situation but nothing was done He did not say what his father was diagnosed with describing it as respiratory problems He added that he inferred his father had been arrested for supporting Tchiroma who fled to Gambia last month Following the announcement of the electoral contest results deadly protests erupted in key opposition strongholds While Cameroon s leadership declared people were killed opposition figures and human rights groups estimated the death toll at more than Source