The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) expressed concern Oct. 30 over the protests and repression that have swept Cameroon following contested presidential election results. Demonstrators defied a ban on protests to support the opposition after the Oct. 12 election, but the situation escalated after the Constitutional Council announced five days later that long-ruling President Paul Biya had won. The opposition rejected the results and proclaimed their candidate, Issa Tchirola Bakary, as the legitimate winner, urging citizens to demonstrate peacefully. Thousands took to the streets demanding recognition of an opposition victory, but clashes between protesters and security forces led to fatalities and numerous arrests. The protests have shaken the capital, Yaoundé; the economic capital, Douala; and the northern towns of Garoua and Maroua. Local jails are filled with opposition supporters who accuse Biya of rigging the polls. Biya is now to assume his eighth term in office, standing as the world's oldest president, having ruled Cameroon for 43 years. (Jurist)

The public prosecutor of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) formally requested the death penalty for former president Joseph Kabila on Aug. 22 during proceedings before the High Military Court in Kinshasa. The military auditor general, Lt. Gen. Lucien René Likulia, argued before the court that the former president should face capital punishment for his role in war crimes, including homicide, rape, deportation and torture. Additionally, prosecutors sought a 20-year sentence for condoning war crimes and 15 years for conspiracy, for his role in enabling armed violence in eastern Congo.

In Donald Trump's perverse ambition to win the Nobel Peace Prize, he is citing his supposed diplomatic victories in ending six conflicts: Armenia-Azerbaijan, Congo-Rwanda, Israel-Iran, India-Pakistan, Thailand-Cambodia and Egypt-Ethiopia. In Episode 292 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg examines each of these examples, and breaks down how claims to have won "peace" are either extremely overstated or (more often) total Orwellian jive. The implication that Russia-Ukraine will be next, as Putin escalates his aggression, puts a hideous crown on the irony.

French President Emmanuel Macron sent a letter to Cameroonian President Paul Biya, dated July 30 but released this week, in which he officially acknowledged his country's use of repressive violence before, during, and after Cameroon's war of independence.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk on Aug. 6 condemned a recent surge in deadly attacks against civilians by M23 fighters and other armed groups in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The attacks come in spite of a June 27 Washington-brokered ceasefire agreement between the DRC government and Rwanda, which backs the M23 rebels.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) on July 24 convicted two Anti-Balaka militia leaders, Alfred Yekatom and Patrice-Edouard Ngaissona, for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in the Central African Republic (CAR) between 2013 and 2014. Yekatom was sentenced to 15 years in prison, while Ngaissona received a 12-year sentence.

The ICC found that Yekatom and Ngaissona led a campaign of violence targeting Muslim civilians in retaliation for months of looting and violence carried out by the Muslim-led Séléka rebel coalition, which had seized power in 2013. The convictions include charges of murder, intentionally attacking civilian populations, forcible transfer, torture and other inhumane acts, and persecution.

Amnesty International on June 20 welcomed the conviction by the Central African Republic's Special Criminal Court (SCC) of six former combatants for war crimes and crimes against humanity, calling the decision "a breakthrough in the fight against impunity in the country." However, Amnesty said that the trial in the Ndélé 2 case was "tarnished" by the fact that four out of six defendants were convicted in absentia.

Amnesty International on May 14 condemned the life sentence handed down by a military court in Cameroon against activist Abdu Karim Ali, calling it an "affront to justice" and demanding his immediate and unconditional release. According to Amnesty, Ali was arrested without a warrant in 2022 and arbitrarily detained after he produced a video exposing torture carried out by the leader of a pro-government militia in Cameroon's conflicted Southwest Region. Last month, a military court in Yaoundé, the national capital, sentenced him to life imprisonment for "hostility against the homeland" and "secession."