CPJ Remembers Samuel Wazizi Six Years Later, Yet No Justice

By MMI

Six years have passed since Cameroonian President Paul Biya promised to investigate the death of Samuel Wazizi, a Buea-based journalist who died in military custody.

Wazizi was arrested in 2019 and his death was announced nine months later that he had died two weeks into detention. Since then, his family has received neither his corpse nor any sense of closure. While the military claimed he died of severe sepsis, the circumstances surrounding his death remain unknown, and the government has since classified his case.

CPJ Calls for Justice

On the International Day to End Impunity for Crimes Against Journalists, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is renewing its call for justice. The organization has highlighted five cases of journalists killed for their work, including that of Samuel Wazizi. In remembering them, CPJ views the ongoing silence as a denial of justice.

According to CPJ, the popular Pidgin news anchor and camera operator is one of four journalists killed in Cameroon since 1992. His death illustrates both the extreme risks journalists face and the extreme lengths to which governments will go to obscure the circumstances of their deaths. CPJ remembers him as a frequent critic of the government’s handling of the separatist conflict in Cameroon’s minority English-speaking regions.

How He Was Arrested

CPJ reports that Wazizi was arrested on August 2, 2019, after covering allegations of government killings in those regions. Journalists in Buea stated he was first detained at a Muea police station before being transferred to military custody. The Cameroonian military later announced that he died in custody in the capital, Yaoundé, two weeks after his arrest.

When journalists in Buea confronted the Southwest Governor, Bernard Okalia Bilai, he claimed Wazizi had left Buea in good health. However, CPJ notes that the circumstances and location of his death—which was not announced until ten months later—remain unknown.

“No new information about his death has surfaced, despite a French ambassador stating in 2020 that President Paul Biya had promised an investigation. In November 2024, a justice ministry official told the U.N. that Wazizi’s case was closed and his file classified.”