By Tata Mbunwe
The death in detention of prominent opposition leader, Anicet Ekane, has left many hearts broken, including that of his eldest son, Muna Ekane, and lead lawyer, Barrister Emmanuel Simh, who have blamed government neglect for his demise.
In a comment to AP, Muna Ekane said authorities took no action when his father’s respiratory condition worsened in the week leading up to his death on December 1, 2025.
“For one week, he had difficulties breathing; he was suffocating,” said Muna.
“He was diagnosed while in detention but no proper treatment was followed. He had difficulties eating. We spent the whole week alerting public authorities about his worsening health situation but nothing was done.”
Muna added that Anicet died of “respiratory problems” without revealing the exact cause of his death.
Anicet Ekane, a political opponent of long-serving President Paul Biya, died at the medical center of the National Gendarmerie in Yaounde on the morning of December 1.
The 74-year-old was arrested on October 24 in Douala, after strongly opposing Paul Biya’s victory in the October 12, 2025, President election. He was among about 2,000 people arrested after the election, for supporting Issa Tchiroma Bakary, Biya’s main challenger who had claimed victory days before the official results from the Constitutional Council gave Biya his eighth mandate.
While in Gendarmerie detention, his family and lawyer said Anicet Ekane was deprived of oxygen and his respiratory equipment.
His lead defence lawyer Barrister Emmanuel Simh, who confirmed his death to MMI on Monday morning, believes authorities abandoned his client to die.
“Mr. Ekane was critically sick, he was denied appropriate treatment,” Simh told AP.
“We’re still in the shock and sadness. Ekane committed no crime, so we need to know why he was arrested and abandoned in the prison cell of the paramilitary gendarmerie.”
The Ministry of Defence (MINDEF) said in a statement that Ekane died of “an illness” while receiving treatment at the Gendarmerie military medical center in Yaounde.
The statement signed by MINDEF’s communication Division Chief, Captain Cyrille Atonfack, added that the firebrand opposition leader was arrested “as part of an investigation opened for various serious offenses under the jurisdiction of the Military Court”.
His death has sparked a wave of eulogies from political and civil society leaders in the country. Some of them regret how far the Biya regime can go to target its political opponents.
“It is a real catastrophe for Cameroon today because Anicet Ekane, along with the close to 2,000 other people who have been arrested, we don’t know why they were arrested. And arrest is too kind a word…what happened to them is not arrest. It’s kidnapping and amid that kidnapping, they took somebody who was ill and they left behind his medical equipment that he needed for his well-being,” said civil society activist and former presidential candidate, Edith Kah Walla.
Human rights activist, Barrister Agbor Balla also denounced prolonged detention of suspects in Cameroon.
Anicet Ekane was the president of the African Movement for New Independence and Democracy (MANIDEM) based in Douala.
The party had invested popular opposition leader, Maurice Kamto, as its candidate for the 2025 election but Kamto was disqualified over claims of multiple candidacies from the same party.
