Cameroon: Lawyers on strike against police violence

Cameroonian lawyers launched a three-day strike on Wednesday to protest against police violence targeting their profession, according to reports.

The protest was instigated by the Cameroon Bar Council, which issued a statement denouncing the physical violence, barbarism and other humiliating treatment to which lawyers are recurrently subjected by the forces of law and order, reports stated.

In the press release, the President of the Bar Association, Mbah Eric Mba, mentions two recent cases. On Saturday, videos circulated virally on social networks showing police officers using violence and other degrading and inhumane acts against a lawyer. The previous day, the association had been informed of the case of another lawyer, who had been kidnapped by police officers for having denounced violations of his client’s rights.

The Bar Council decided to take legal action to ensure that the perpetrators are held to account, and called on lawyers to mobilize.

The Cameroonian authorities have not yet commented on either the strike or the acts attributed to the forces of law and order.