Lawyers in Cameroon strike to protest police violence

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YAOUNDE - Lawyers in Cameroon began a three-day strike Wednesday, leaving some courtrooms empty, to protest against police violence which they say is targeting their profession.

The council of the Bar Association, which organized the action, condemned in a statement "physical violence, barbarity and other humiliating treatment of which lawyers are recurrent victims at the hands of the police".

The council's president Mbah Eric Mba referred to two recent cases, including videos shared on social media last weekend showing "police officers carrying out violence and other degrading and inhumane acts on a lawyer".

On Friday, the council was also informed that another lawyer had been kidnapped by police after complaining of rights violations against his clients.

It said it would launch legal proceedings over the cases.

Several courtrooms in the capital Yaounde remained empty on Wednesday, an AFP journalist saw.

The lawyers' council already protested in November after a lawyer ended up in hospital after being detained by police in the economic capital Douala.

President Paul Biya, 92, who has been in power for 42 years, further toughened his autocratic grip on power after highly contested elections in 2018.

Dissenting opinions are firmly met with repression, arrests and prison terms, human rights activists say.

Human Rights Watch recently highlighted growing government repression against the opposition and dissidents since mid-2024 ahead of a presidential election set for October.