A crackdown by armed forces in Cameroon has killed at least four opposition supporters amid protests over the declared re-election win by President Paul Biya.<\/p>\n
Protesters calling for fair results from the African country\u2019s contested presidential election held on October 12 have hit the streets in several cities as 92-year-old Biya prepares for an eighth term, which could keep him in power until 2032 as he nears 100.<\/p>\n
Biya, whose election win was finally confirmed by Cameroon\u2019s Constitutional Council on Monday, is Africa\u2019s oldest and among the world\u2019s longest ruling leaders. He has spent 43 years \u2013 nearly half his life \u2013 in office. He has ruled Cameroon, a country of 30 million people, as president since 1982 through elections that political opponents said have been \u201cstolen\u201d.<\/p>\n Supporters of opposition candidate Issa Tchiroma Bakary of the Front for the National Salvation of Cameroon party have defied a ban on protests, setting police cars on fire, barricading roads and burning tyres in the financial capital, Douala, before the announcement of the election result. Around 30 activists have been arrested.<\/p>\n Police fired tear gas and water cannon to break up the crowds that came out in support of Tchiroma, who had declared himself the real winner, and called for Biya to concede.<\/p>\n Samuel Dieudonne Ivaha Diboua, the governor of the region that includes Douala, told the AFP news agency that the protesters attacked police stations in the second and sixth districts of the city.<\/p>\n Several members of the security forces were wounded, and \u201cfour people unfortunately lost their lives,\u201d he said. Tchiroma\u2019s campaign team confirmed the deaths on Sunday were of protesters.<\/p>\n Opposition supporters claim the results of the election have been rigged by Biya and his supporters in power. In the lead-up to the announcement of the result, the current government rejected these accusations and urged people to wait for the result.<\/p>\n The Union for Change is a coalition of opposition parties that formed in September to counter Biya\u2019s dominance of the political landscape.<\/p>\n The forum brought together more than two dozen political parties and civil society groups in opposition to Biya with an aim to field a consensus candidate.<\/p>\n In September, the group confirmed Tchiroma as its consensus candidate to run against Biya.<\/p>\n Tchiroma, 76, was formerly part of Biya\u2019s government, holding several ministerial positions over 16 years. He also served as government spokesperson during the years of fighting the Boko Haram armed group, and he defended the army when it stood accused of killing civilians. He was once regarded as a member of Biya\u2019s \u201cold guard\u201d but has campaigned on a promise of \u201cchange\u201d.<\/p>\n After voting ended on October 12, Tchiroma claimed victory.<\/p>\n \u201cOur victory is clear. It must be respected,\u201d he said in a video statement posted on Facebook. He called on Biya to \u201caccept the truth of the ballot box\u201d or \u201cplunge the country into turmoil\u201d.<\/p>\n Tchiroma claimed that he had won the election with 55 percent of the vote. More than 8 million people were registered to vote in the election.<\/p>\n On Monday, however, the Constitutional Council announced Biya as the winner with 53.66 percent of the vote.<\/p>\n It said Tchiroma was the runner-up with 35.19 percent.<\/p>\n Announcing the results on Monday, the council\u2019s leader, Clement Atangana, said the electoral process was \u201cpeaceful\u201d and criticised the opposition for \u201canticipating the result\u201d.<\/p>\n Under Biya\u2019s rule, Cameroon has struggled with myriad challenges, including chronic corruption that critics say has dampened economic growth despite the country being rich in resources such as oil and cocoa.<\/p>\n The president, who has clinched wins in eight heavily contested elections held every seven years, is renowned for his absenteeism as he reportedly spends extended periods away from the country.<\/p>\n The 92-year-old appeared at just one campaign rally in the lead-up to this month\u2019s election when he promised voters that \u201cthe best is still to come.\u201d<\/p>\n He and his entourage are often away on private or medical treatment trips to Switzerland. An investigation in 2018 by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project found Biya had spent at least 1,645 days (nearly four and a half years) in the European country, excluding official visits, since being in power.<\/p>\n Under Biya, opposition politicians have frequently accused electoral authorities of colluding with the president to rig elections. In 2008, parliament voted to remove the limit on the number of terms a president may serve.<\/p>\n Before the election, the Constitutional Council barred another popular opposition candidate, Maurice Kamto of the Cameroon Renaissance Movement, from running.<\/p>\n Some opposition leaders and their supporters have been detained by police on a slew of charges, including plotting violence.<\/p>\n On Friday, two prominent leaders, Anicet Ekane and Djeukam Tchameni of the Union for Change, were arrested.<\/p>\n The African Movement for New Independence and Democracy party also said its treasurer and other members had been \u201ckidnapped\u201d by local security forces, a move it claimed was designed \u201cto intimidate Cameroonians\u201d.<\/p>\n Analysts also said Biya\u2019s hold on power could lead to instability when he eventually goes.<\/p>\n Since 2015, attacks by the armed group, Boko Haram, have become more and more frequent in the Far North Region of the country.<\/p>\n Furthermore, since gaining independence in 1960 from French rule, Cameroon has struggled with conflict rooted in the country\u2019s deep linguistic and political divisions, which developed when French- and English-speaking regions were merged into a single state.<\/p>\n French is the official language, and Anglophone Cameroonians in the northwest and southwest have felt increasingly marginalised by the Francophone-dominated government in Yaounde.<\/p>\n Their grievances \u2013 over language, education, courts and distribution of resources \u2013 turned into mass protests in 2016 when teachers and lawyers demanded equal recognition of English-language institutions.<\/p>\n The government responded with arrests and internet blackouts, and the situation eventually built up to an armed separatist struggle for an independent state called Ambazonia.<\/p>\n The recent presidential election was the first to take place since the conflict intensified. Armed separatists have barred the Anglophone population from participating in government-organised activities, such as National Day celebrations and elections.<\/p>\n As a result, the Southwest and Northwest regions saw widespread abstention in voting on October 12 with a 53 percent turnout. The highest share of votes, according to the official results, went to Biya: 68.7 percent and 86.31 percent in the two regions, respectively.<\/p>\n Protests are likely to spread, observers said.<\/p>\n After the deaths of four protesters before the results were announced, Tchiroma paid tribute \u201cto those who fell to the bullets of a regime that has become criminal during a peaceful march\u201d.<\/p>\n He called on Biya\u2019s government to \u201cstop these acts of barbarity, these killings and arbitrary arrests\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cTell the truth of the ballots, or we will all mobilise and march peacefully,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n A crackdown by armed forces in Cameroon has killed at least four opposition supporters amid protests over the declared re-election win by President Paul Biya. Protesters calling for fair results from the African country\u2019s contested presidential election held on October 12 have hit the streets in several cities as 92-year-old Biya prepares for an eighth […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":238,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-237","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-africa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=237"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/238"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=237"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"cameroon\"](\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/2025-10-27T105706Z_1185582551_RC2DAHAP51NP_RTRMADP_3_CAMEROON-ELECTION-1761566072.jpg?w=770&resize=770%2C524&quality=80\")
What\u2019s behind the deadly protests?<\/h2>\n
Who is the main opposition in Cameroon?<\/h2>\n
What happened after the election?<\/h2>\n
![\"Four](\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/2025-10-26T202035Z_798373541_RC2TJHAOT2CI_RTRMADP_3_CAMEROON-ELECTION-1761548489.jpg?w=770&resize=770%2C573&quality=80\")
What are the main criticisms of Biya?<\/h2>\n
What is the security situation in Cameroon?<\/h2>\n
![\"cameroon\"](\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/2025-10-16T070207Z_357363326_RC2ACHAMBFVT_RTRMADP_3_CAMEROON-ELECTION-MOTORBIKES-1761566091.jpg?w=770&resize=770%2C513&quality=80\")
What will happen now?<\/h2>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"