Mass arrests followed Cameroon’s post-election violence in which 16 people died, minister says

DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — Authorities in Cameroon said 800 people were arrested and 16 killed during clashes with security forces over the election victory of President Paul Biya. It is the government’s first official comment on the death toll since the unrest began.

Interior Minister Paul Atanga Nji said security forces killed 13 protesters in the economic hub of Douala, and three others in the North Region during the violence.

However, opposition figures estimate the death toll at 55, according to a Human Rights Watch report published Wednesday.

“The violent crackdown on protesters and ordinary citizens across Cameroon lays bare a deepening pattern of repression that casts a dark cloud over the election” Ilaria Allegrozzi, senior Africa researcher at Human Rights Watch, said in the report.

“The authorities should immediately rein in, investigate, and prosecute responsible security forces, and all political leaders should call on their supporters to reject violence.”

The protests erupted in key opposition strongholds, including Douala and in northern cities like Maroua and Garoua, after the results of the Oct. 12 presidential election were announced.

Paul Biya, 92, who is the world’s oldest president, won the vote and secured his eighth term, according to official results, which were contested by the opposition, including presidential rival Issa Tchiroma Bakary, who claims to have won the election and has called on Cameroonians to reject the official result.

Biya has been in power since 1982, nearly half his lifetime, making him Cameroon’s second president since independence from France in 1960.

He is rarely seen in public and critics say his capacity to govern has been severely limited by his age.