Cameroonian lawyers have been trying unsuccessfully since Monday to "meet the Ambazonian Leaders" kept in a secret place in Yaoundé after being extradited from Nigeria earlier this week, AFP reports on Thursday.
Mr. Claude Assira explained that he went twice, along with two other lawyers, to the State Secretariat for Defense (SED), the headquarters of the gendarmerie in Yaounde, where 47 separatists from the English-speaking West, are believed to have been detained since their extradition to Cameroon on Monday.
"Unfortunately, we found ourselves faced with an obstacle because of the lack of cooperation of the men in uniform (gendarmes) on the spot (who claimed) to require authorization from the Government Commissioner at the Yaounde Military Court", a- he told the press.
"The government commissioner has also proved to be inaccessible," he said.
Among the three lawyers is Felix Agbor Nkongho, one of the leaders of the Anglophone protest for over a year, imprisoned in mid-2017 and released in September by presidential decree.
"The steps taken will continue in the right forms and deadlines to allow the mis en cause to benefit from the guarantees provided by the laws of the Republic," assured Mr. Assira.
The "president" of the English-speaking separatist movement, Sisiku Ayuk Tabe, detained in Nigeria since January 5, was extradited Monday in Cameroon with 46 others , considered "terrorists" by Yaoundé, according Issa Tchiroma Bakary, spokesman of the Cameroonian government.
"They risk torture and partial trials in front of Cameroonian military courts," AFI researcher Ilaria Allegrozzi told AFP on Tuesday.
Before the extradition took place on Friday , 125 people were already detained in Yaounde in the context of the Anglophone crisis, according to Agbor Nkongho, asking the authorities to dialogue with the secessionists, an option that the government does not envisage, according to Mr. Tchiroma.
"We should talk to them, this country should talk to every citizen," Agbor Nkongho wrote on social media.
Cameroon is preparing for elections - including the presidential election - at the end of 2018. According to observers, the deep socio-political crisis that Yaoundé is experiencing in its English-speaking regions could disrupt these elections.
Source: AFP