Amnesty International urged Cameroon to improve its human rights situation Thursday, responding to the country’s suspension of four non-governmental organizations (NGOs), including the Central African Human Rights Defenders Network (REDHAC), and the alleged harassment of Cameroonian lawyer and REDHAC board president Alice Nkom.

On December 5, Cameroonian Minister of Territorial Administration Paul Atanga Nji issued a decree suspending the activities of REDHAC and other NGOs for three months, citng “illicit and exorbitant funding” that can undermine the integrity of the national financial system. According to Human Rights Watch (HRW), police later sealed REDHAC’s office in the city of Douala, but Nkom later broke the seals as an act of protest. 

Nkom was first summoned by the prefect of the Wouri department on December 10, but she requested to postpone until January to ensure the presence of her lawyer during questioning. The activist was later summoned on December 31 over allegations of raising funds to support armed groups, according to Amnesty. 

HRW pointed out that REDHEC’s lawyers argued in an appeal that the decree failed to follow proper procedures under Cameroon’s 1990 law on freedom of association, which requires prior authorization from the provincial authority and meeting public order and security-related reasons before suspension.  It also claimed that only Cameroon’s National Agency For Financial Investigation and judicial authorities are entitled to initiate proceedings under a regional Regulation on the Prevention and Suppression of Money Laundering and Financing of Terrorism and Proliferation in Central Africa.

Ilaria Allegrozzi, senior Sahel researcher at Human Rights Watch said the minister’s accusation lacked credible evidence and therefore. Additionally, Human Rights Watch (HRW) noted that the decree appeared linked to the Cameroonian authorities’ “pervasive crackdown on civil society, the media, and the political opposition.”  

Marceau Sivieude, Amnesty International’s interim Regional Director for West and Central Africa, said:

The ban on activities and the arbitrary suspension for three months of Redhac and three other civil society organizations is contrary to the country’s international human rights obligations to ensure the rights of everyone to freedom of expression and association. The authorities must immediately end the misuse of the justice system to target Alice Nkom. Moreover, the weaponization of the justice system to intimidate human rights defender Alice Nkom shows the authorities’ flagrant disregard for the human rights of those who defend the rights of other people.

REDHAC is a sub-regional network focused on protecting human rights. The organization recently highlighted the widespread practice of torture by Cameroonian security forces in and outside Cameroon’s detention facilities in an October report to the United Nations Committee Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.