A video purportedly displaying in style Cameroonian singer Simon Longkana Agno, broadly referred to as Longue Longue, being tortured has led to widespread outrage within the nation.
The artist, famend for making hits about dangerous governance, colonialism and different social ills, mentioned the video was taken after he was arrested in 2019, however that is the primary time it has been seen by the general public.
Longue Longue shared it himself. He informed the BBC he had obtained the video from an unknown supply in America, who had despatched it to him.
The Cameroonian authorities mentioned in a press release that they had opened an investigation into the “unlucky incident”.
Warning: This text comprises an image and descriptions of torture
Within the video, Longue Longue’s palms are cuffed behind his again, and he’s sitting on the ground in his underwear because the soles of his naked ft are crushed with a flat machete.
Regardless of his determined pleas for the beating to cease, the lads, alleged by Longue Longue to be safety brokers, proceed.
The BBC has been unable to confirm the video.
On his Fb web page, he mentioned he was arrested for his “freedom of thought”, and promised to file authorized complaints in each Cameroon and France, the place he’s now residing.
“It has been three months since I left Cameroon, I did not really feel protected there any extra,” the 51-year-old artist informed BBC Afrique.
Longue Longue added that he did not need to be within the nation for the presidential election due subsequent 12 months.
He mentioned he felt safer in France however was nonetheless anxious about his household again house.
The singer mentioned he had obtained threats after asserting he was going to publish the video.
“I obtained calls saying that if it ever will get made public, they are going to go after my household,” he defined.
He was arrested in 2019 after posting a video saying that long-time President Paul Biya had rigged the 2018 election.
The artist mentioned opposition chief, Maurice Kamto of the Cameroon Renaissance Motion (CRM), was the rightful winner of the polls.
On the time, the Constitutional Council rejected Kamto’s demand for a re-run due to alleged rigging.
The opposition chief is amongst these to have denounced the obvious torture and referred to as for an investigation into the incident.
“The CRM strongly condemns this state barbarity and calls for the pressing opening of an enquiry to arrest and instantly deliver earlier than the courts the perpetrators of those inhuman acts,” Kamto mentioned in a press release on X.
He added that the video was “paying homage to the horrific therapy” opposition activists confronted through the crackdown in 2019 when tons of of his supporters had been detained.
Famend Cameroonian human rights lawyer Akere Muna mentioned Longue Longue’s therapy was a “stark reminder of the depths of depravity to which humanity can descend”.
Rights teams have criticised the federal government for creating an environment of impunity for members of the nation’s safety forces.
They’ve additionally accused the authorities of cracking down on dissent forward of subsequent 12 months’s presidential election.
Extra Cameroon tales from the BBC:
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