Death of Anye Nde Nsoh: RSF calls on government to update investigations
4 months after journalist Anye Nde Nsoh was shot dead in Bamenda, Reporters Without Borders have made fresh calls, demanding the government of Cameroon to give an account of investigations earlier opened.
The call is in a publication issued on September 7, 2023, endorsed by Sadibou Marong,
Director of RSF’s sub-Saharan Africa bureau.
On May 7, 2023, the North West and West Bureau chief of The Advocate newspaper, Anye Nde Nsoh was shot dead at Che Street in Bamenda II subdivision.
Separatist fighters, later on, claimed they carried out the act, acknowledging that it was the case of a ‘mistaken identity ‘
The government of Cameroon through the Senior Divisional Officer of Mezam and the minister of communication said investigations were open to bring to order those who committed the act.
But four months later, nothing has been heard concerning the investigations, just like the case of another journalist, Samuel Wazizi who was arbitrarily arrested, lockup and died in government custody in 2019.
Reporters Without Borders has continued to call on separatist fighters to stop attacking journalists while urging the government of Cameroon to protect journalists, especially those who are working in the crisis regions.
“Anye Nde Nsoh’s murder has highlighted the extent of the dangers to which journalists in Cameroon’s Anglophone regions are exposed, caught between the hammer of the separatist armed groups and the anvil of the Cameroonian armed forces. Many of them have told RSF that their daily lives are overshadowed by threats, arbitrary detention, and persecution. We call on the authorities to establish effective measures to protect journalists in order to prevent these regions from becoming no-news zones”
According to the latest publication by RSF, many journalists in the Anglophone regions have decided to silence their pens on certain issues on the grounds that “anything can happen to me”
RSF says the numerous attacks and threats on journalists may completely cause them to quit the profession and the regions become uninformed.
