Release from house arrest changes nothing – Kamto

Cameroonian opposition MRC leader Maurice Kamto has slammed the government for wasting time and resources in keeping him under house arrest until earlier this week.

He had spent 78 days in confinement after calling peaceful anti-government protests in September that saw hundreds of demonstrators arrested. A number of journalists at the scene were also detained.

Days before his release on Tuesday, Cameroon held its first regional council elections aimed at pacifying those calling for federalism. Mr Kamto and some other oppositions figures boycotted the vote, which saw the ruling CPDM party win nine out of 10 councils.

In an interview with the BBC, Mr Kamto said he will keep fighting for electoral reforms, and a resolution to the crisis in Cameroon’s Anglophone regions, where separatists are waging an insurgency and government forces have been accused of atrocities.

He accused President Paul Biya’s government of reversing the gains Cameroon made in its democratisation process.

He told the BBC’s Killian Ngala about his experience under house arrest:

Quote Message: It prevented me from my engagements abroad – teaching in some universities where I was invited as a professor. I couldn’t carry on my professional duties as usual… But I still managed to do some work, to continue to sit for doctorate defences via Zoom.”
It prevented me from my engagements abroad – teaching in some universities where I was invited as a professor. I couldn’t carry on my professional duties as usual… But I still managed to do some work, to continue to sit for doctorate defences via Zoom.”

Quote Message: The retreat of police from around my house doesn’t change anything as far as I’m concerned. The problem is the situation of our country and until you resolve the Anglophone crisis, stop the bloodshed in the North-West and South-West [regions] – until you agree to make a consensual reform of the electoral code to avoid further post-electoral crisis in this country – it doesn’t change anything whether you maintain me in house detention without any legal basis, or you give me my normal constitutional freedom to move.”
The retreat of police from around my house doesn’t change anything as far as I’m concerned. The problem is the situation of our country and until you resolve the Anglophone crisis, stop the bloodshed in the North-West and South-West [regions] – until you agree to make a consensual reform of the electoral code to avoid further post-electoral crisis in this country – it doesn’t change anything whether you maintain me in house detention without any legal basis, or you give me my normal constitutional freedom to move.”