Left-wing Cameroonian opposition figure Anicet Ekane has died in detention, five weeks after he was arrested, his lawyers and party have announced.
Ekane, 74, was among the leaders of an opposition coalition who endorsed Issa Tchiroma Bakary in October’s presidential election.
Tchiroma Bakary says he was the rightful winner of the poll, officially won by 92-year-old incumbent Paul Biya. Tchiroma Bakary has since fled to The Gambia.
No official cause of Ekane’s death has been announced. His party has accused the authorities of denying him access to his medication – a charge the government has denied.
According to a spokesman for Ekane’s African Movement for New Independence and Democracy (Manidem) party, Ekane died on Monday morning at a military medical facility, after his health worsened over the weekend.
“We have no clarification… His wife had been called to come and when she found herself there, she was just presented the corpse of her husband,” he said.
He added that the family later took the corpse to the mortuary.
Defence ministry spokesman Capt Cyrille Serge Atonfack said the Manidem leader had died from illness, but did not give any further details.
“The deceased, who suffered from various chronic pathologies, had been interned at the Military Medical Centre of the National Gendarmerie,” he said, adding that the politician had been well taken care of by doctors since his arrest on 24 October.
Minister of Communication and government spokesperson René Emmanuel Sadi later expressed the government’s condolences to Ekane’s family, as well as the Manidem party.
He also said that Ekane had received proper medical attention from both his personal doctors and those at the military hospital where he was admitted, adding that an investigation had been launched to determine the exact circumstances of Ekane’s death.
