Anicet Ekane's demise: It could have been avoided!.

His eldest son, Dr Muna Ekane, told Associated Press that his father’s health had worsened on Sunday. 

“For one week, he had difficulties breathing; he was suffocating,” the son said. “He was diagnosed while in detention but no proper treatment was followed. He had difficulties eating. We spent the whole week alerting public authorities about his worsening health situation but nothing was done,” he added. 

One of his lawyers, Barrister Emmanuel Simh, told the Associated Press that: “Mr Ekane was critically sick, he was denied appropriate treatment…we’re still in shock and sadness. Ekane committed no crime, so we need to know why he was arrested in the first place and abandoned in the prison cell of the paramilitary gendarmerie”.

The Minister of Communication and Government Spokesperson, Rene Emmanuel Sadi, corroborating his peer of the Ministry of Defence, said Ekane received appropriate care from military doctors working alongside his personal physicians.

“The deceased, who suffered from various chronic illnesses, had since been hospitalised at the National Gendarmerie Military Medical Center,” the Ministry of Defence said. 

“He was receiving appropriate care from the Military Medical Corps, in conjunction with his personal physicians, and benefiting from additional follow-up care in local hospitals,” it added. 

That explanation has not been satisfactory with MANIDEN calling it "murder" in a social media post raising several unanswered questions. 

Why, in the first place, was he detained?

According to one of his lawyers, Hippolyte Meli, in a statement on social media, Ekane was accused of "hostility against the State, incitement to revolt, and calls for insurrection".

Lawyer Meli, however, said: "He was never presented before a judge or charged with any misdemeanour". 

In a statement on social media, he described the detention of the MANIDEM party leader as "illegal".

Batonier Akere Muna, in his reaction, said Ekane's death is "the extinguishing of a fierce and passionate flame" that burned for democratic emancipation”.

“One would have thought that basic humanity, the fundamental presumption of innocence, and the undeniable evidence of his failing health would have compelled his release to his family and the care of the medical experts who knew his condition," Muna said.

Issa Tchiroma Bakary, whom Ekane supported at the disputed October election which has led to scores of deaths, in a statement, said: “Anicet Ekane is not just another martyr. He is a beacon, a symbol and a moral compass".

Against the barrage of scathing criticisms, Minister Rene Sadi announced that the Head of State has “immediately” ordered an investigation to determine “precisely and objectively” the true causes of death. 

This step, it assures, aims to provide clarity to the family, the public, and Cameroon’s international partners.

Welcoming government’s decision and describing Ekane as a "committed activist" and a "figure of democratic pluralism" since the 1990s, the European Union considered an investigation as essential and emphasises the need to establish the facts accurately and transparently.

It reiterated its declaration of October 28, 2025, in which it called for guaranteeing the safety and integrity of political actors and combating violence and human rights violations. 

It also reiterated its call for the release of all those arbitrarily detained following the disputed presidential election in which Tchiroma continues to claim his victory was stolen.

There is no doubt that Ekane's death has sparked widespread outrage and threatens to deepen the post-electoral political turmoil gripping the country.

To soothe the flaring tension will first require the government to listen to the advice of the European Union, whose member countries are Cameroon's "international partners," by freeing all those arrested in connection to the post-election violence.

Secondly, and most importantly, Yaounde should set up a judicial commission like the one used after the Ngarbur massacre.

There is a satire in some public discourse that "government commissions are often set just to conceal and protect offenders". 

They give an example as the case of Buea-based journalist, Samuel Wazizi. He was arrested in Buea and detained on August 17, 2019, in Yaounde. The military announced his death on June 5, 2020, in questionable circumstances.

It was the then French Ambassador to Cameroon, Christophe Guilhou, who announced in June 2020, that President Paul Biya had promised an investigation into circumstances leading to his death.

However, human rights organisations reported later that the case was closed, and no transparent, independent investigation findings had been publicly released.

Although all human lives matter, circumstances of deaths defer. That of Ekane is drawing national and international rage, not only on political grounds but on humanitarian ramification.

 An investigation should be able to give answers to critical questions like: Who accused him and for what? Why was he kept for 28 days without a charge? Who confiscated his respiratory equipment as alleged?

Such an investigation should also be guided by the recommendation of the International Committee of the Red Cross to provide answers to the following questions: What are the obligations of the detaining authorities? How should evidence be collected and secured? What are the essential elements of a post-mortem examination? What are the rights of the next of kin? How can similar incidents be prevented from happening?

It is only such an independent judiciary investigation, conducted in public, that will attest to Cameroon's adherence to democratic norms and rule of law, whose vacuum could have ominous ramifications for everyone with time; time, as Leo Tolstoy writes in War and Peace, being a "powerful warrior". 

This article was first published in The Guardian Post Edition No:3644 of Wednesday December 03, 2025