A group of UN human rights experts has called on the Cameroon government to release the detained founder of opposition Cameroon Renaissance Movement, Maurice Kamto.
Kamto, who has been under house arrests for three weeks, and hundreds of his supporters were arrested following nationwide protests on 22 September.
The military surrounded his home after he called for countrywide protests to force President Paul Biya, in power now for 38 years, to resign.
Kamto had accused President Paul Biya of stealing the 2018 presidential election from him. He called for protests against regional elections and Biya’s leadership of the country.
About 500 of Mr Kamto’s supporters were also arrested, and more than 200 of them are still in custody.
The secretary-general of the CRM, Christopher Ndong, says police detained a number of their supporters, including Alain Forgues, the party’s legal advisor.
“They [police] arrested professor Forgues and some militants [supporters] who were there,” he said. “They had some beatings and Kamto told them that they would not stop him. So, we are going to march. We are not afraid of arrest because we know what we are doing is within the ambits of the constitution. It is our right to manifest and our march is peaceful.”
The 14 independent UN experts have also called for an impartial investigation into alleged human rights violations by the Cameroon government.
The government’s spokesman, Emmanuel Sadi, and his colleague of Territorial Administration, Paul Atanga Nji, had earlier threatened to ban Mr Kamto’s party, Cameroon Renaissance Movement, as well as take up legal action against the opposition leader.