| schema:articleBody
| - A Cameroonian journalist arrested in August for criticising the government's handling of a separatist revolt died in detention, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said. Samuel Wazizi worked for local TV channel, CMTV, in one of two regions where anglophone separatists have launched an armed campaign for independence from French-speaking Cameroon. "Wazizi died in detention," the watchdog said in a statement issued late Wednesday that called for a "thorough and independent investigation" into what happened. He was arrested on August 2, 2019 and "accused of speaking critically on the air about the authorities and their handling of the crisis," RSF said. Five days later, he was taken from a police station in Buea to the local headquarters of the army's 21st Motorised Infantry Battalion, but from then on neither his family nor his lawyers were allowed any contact with him or given any information, it said. RSF said Wazizi's death had been confirmed by two sources, including the head of the Cameroonian National Journalists' Union, while a senior military officer said the journalist had been "ill" but gave no further details. On Tuesday, privately-owned channel Equinoxe TV, quoting what it described as sources close to the military command, said Wazizi had died during transfer to the nation's capital Yaounde at an unknown date after his arrest. RSF said Wazizi's death in detention while being held incommunicado "is the worst crime against a journalist in the past 10 years in Cameroon." "We call on the Cameroonian authorities to end the intolerable silence around this case, to return the journalist's body to his family, and to conduct a thorough, independent investigation to establish the chain of responsibility and circumstances leading to this tragedy." The media watchdog ranks Cameroon 134th out of 180 countries and territories in its 2020 World Press Freedom Index, three places lower than the previous year. On social media, the hashtag #JusticeForWazizi was used by journalists, civil society figures and the opposition. There was no immediate response from the authorities to an AFP request for comment. Buea is the capital of the Southwest Region, which with the neighbouring Northwest Region has been gripped by violence since the separatist revolt began in October 2017. The conflict, rooted in long-standing perceptions of discrimination among Cameroon's English-speaking minority, has claimed more than 3,000 lives and forced nearly 700,000 people to flee their homes. Rights groups say atrocities and abuses have been committed by both the separatists and the security forces. The United Nation and Human Rights Watch on Thursday condemned intensifying attacks, abductions and extortion that humanitarian workers are experiencing in the two anglophone regions. "The situation has reached a point where aid delivery has had to be scaled back, putting many lives at unnecessary risk," the organisations said in a statement. The statement singled out "non-state armed groups" over the kidnappings, while saying Cameroon security forces had delayed the delivery of aid. jbk-cma/dl/bp
|
![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)
![[cxml]](/fct/images/cxml_doc.png)
![[csv]](/fct/images/csv_doc.png)
![[text]](/fct/images/ntriples_doc.png)
![[turtle]](/fct/images/n3turtle_doc.png)
![[ld+json]](/fct/images/jsonld_doc.png)
![[rdf+json]](/fct/images/json_doc.png)
![[rdf+xml]](/fct/images/xml_doc.png)
![[atom+xml]](/fct/images/atom_doc.png)
![[html]](/fct/images/html_doc.png)