His name is Mbock Matip ; president of a legal and
recognised Association, a well known civil society activist for the wellbeing
of cameroonians living in the country and abroad.
This man had long ago alerted Cameroon’s authorities via
official letters , radio and television media, that he will untdertake a
« Hunger strike » on the 21st of july 2014. Given that none of the
many letters he has written to all governement officials has had a reply.
So, yesterday july 21st 2014, Mr Mbock Matip engaged in the
action part of his hunger strike, he was sitted before « Cameroon’s
monument of re-unification » - a symbolic place with respect to the unity
of the old Western Cameroon [Anglophone Cameroon because under British mandate]
and the Cameroun Oriental [French speaking Cameroon because under the control
of France] According to colonial history.
At about 2 pm in the afternoon, came the D.O
[Divisional officer] and the Commissioner of the [Yaounde 5 police district]
with other police agents. They roughly got Mbock Matip in the police vehicle
and drove to the city’s outskirts where they dumped him in a nearby bush.
Mbock Matip, using his cell phone, called for help from some
friends who came to his rescue. Still
determined to carry-on with his hunger strike, he this time around went
and sat before the entrance of the embassy of France in Cameroon. As night
came,he walked back to sit before the monument of re-unification till 6 am this
morning of july 22nd 2014. The same police commissioner and agents came , got Mbock Matip in the
police vehicle, and drove out of town. Upon reaching a far-away village on the
highway between Yaounde and Douala, they dropped him, seized his cell phone,
made him swallow some liquid substance from a syringe, took away the money he
had in his pocket and abandoned him on the highway des pite his handicap.
With much luck, Mbock Matip found help in that area and
phoned again his friends here in Yaounde. Volonteer helpers brought him to
Yaounde ; he is suffering from severe stomach aches. He knows not what
these policemen made him swallow. Anyway, friends and well-wishers have taken
him to hospital.
As i write this article, i am very touched. Seeing a civil
rights activist being tortured. I do not know whether by this time Mbock Matip
is dead or not. I sincerely hope he is still alive.
