Credit:  agencecamerounpresse.com  / Cameroon’s main opposition leader Maurice Kamto 

DIPLOMATIC  TIMES   STAFF

Cameroon’s main opposition party accused the government of trying to kill  its leader, Maurice Kamto.  The Cameroon Resistance Movement claimed  an armed gunman tried to kill Kamto during a visit to the city of Garoua last Friday.  The government has denied the accusation.  Kamto  was riding in a car, with crowds of supporters lining both sides of the road, when his private security guards riding behind him dove toward someone following them on a motorcycle.  The guards said the man was carrying a rifle to kill Kamto.

“Following the assassination attempt against him during his visit to Garoua, on Friday March 13, 2020, President-elect Maurice KAMTO filed a complaint upon his return to Yaoundé.”

-MRC spokesperson. 

CRM Secretary-General Christopher Ndong says the actions of the motorcyclist showed that Kamto is no longer safe.  

“I confirm the assassination plot because we have seen that this particular person was a gendarmerie officer that attempted to kill Maurice Kamto in Garoua. He was arrested by the security forces [Kamtos’ private security] that were around Maurice Kamto and carried to the governor’s office,” he said – VOA news. 

The central-west Africa nation has been  gripped by violence in the wake of the country’s disputed October 2018 presidential election.   Paul Biya, an octogenarian who has ruled Cameroon for 36 years, was  sworn in  November 2018  as the  country’s  President for a seventh term.  The opposition accused the October 7 elections of being rigged in favor of Biya.  The 85-year-old Biya was officially declared the  winner of the  elections on October 22. The polls were stained by low turnout and voter intimidation. Biya, who  is sub-Saharan Africa’s oldest president, garnered 71.3 percent of the  vote.  Opposition challenger Kamto came in a distant second with 14.2 of vote. A grass roots campaign against President Biya rapidly grew, and the Cameroon government responded with police violence and arrests of opposition members including Kamto, who  was arrested last February 2019. He was released on October 5, 201,9 when Biya ordered an end to court proceedings against Kamto and hundreds of his supporters.

Maurice Kamto  Makes Long-Awaited Return to Cameroon 

February 27, 2020.   Thousands of people gathered in Cameroon for the return of the opposition leader, Maurice Kamto,  Kamto spent time in the US and France following his release from jail last year. He was imprisoned after claiming victory during the last presidential elections. His return comes as a human rights group accuses the government of long-term Presidentl Biya of overseeing the killing of more than 20 people, including children.