Cameroon military says missing journalist died in its custody

By Josiane Kouagheu
DOUALA, June 5 (Reuters) - Cameroon's military said on
Friday that a journalist who disappeared last August in a part
of the country where it is battling Anglophone separatists died
in its custody weeks after he was arrested but denied that he
was tortured.
The statement, read on national radio, was the first public
acknowledgment by Cameroonian authorities of the death of Samuel
Ebuwe Ajiekia, also known as Samuel Wazizi, who worked as a
radio and television anchor in the South West Region.
The head of Cameroon's journalists union said they last saw
a healthy Wazizi in the first week of August after he was
arrested by the police and were then informed a few days later
that he had been transferred into military custody.
In the statement, army spokesman Cyrille Atonfack Nguemo
said the military took custody of Wazizi on Aug. 7 after
investigations revealed he was coordinating logistics for
separatist fighters - charges his family and colleagues deny.
On Aug. 13, Nguemo said, Wazizi was placed into the custody
of the national gendarmerie - a military police force. Soon
after, Wazizi became sick and was taken to hospital in the
capital Yaounde, where he died on Aug. 17, Nguemo said.
"He clearly died from a severe sepsis and not from any acts
of torture," Nguemo said, rejecting accusations of torture made
by the head of the journalists' union.
Nguemo also said that Wazizi's family was informed of his
death. But Wazizi's brother, Henry Abuwe, denied that.
"It's a lie," he said, adding that his brother was "loved by
everyone" and had never worked with the separatists.
Rights groups have accused both government troops and
separatists of atrocities during the conflict, which began in
2017 after security forces violently cracked down on peaceful
protests by English speakers against marginalisation by
Cameroon's French-speaking majority. The violence over the past three years has killed an
estimated 3,000 people and forced more than 700,000 from their
homes, Human Rights Watch said in April.

(Writing by Aaron Ross; Editing by Bate Felix and Alex
Richardson)