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BBC News
a day ago
- Politics
- BBC News
Maurice Kamto: Police surround home of opposition firebrand in Cameroon
Cameroon's main opposition leader Maurice Kamto says police have surrounded his home for the past two days since he returned from France, where he had held a political rally that inflamed the ruling CPDM Sunday law enforcement officers blocked the 71-year-old from leaving his lodgings in the main city of Douala for a meeting with members of his Cameroon Renaissance Movement (CRM) later called off plans to hold the meeting on Monday because of the strong police plans to contest Cameroon's presidential election later this year, hoping to end 92-year-old Paul Biya's four-decade grip on power. Biya has not yet declared whether he will stand for re-election. Kamto spent nine months in detention after contesting the 2018 poll, when the authorities accused the former law professor of insurrection following protests by his supporters who claimed that the poll had been rigged in favour of Biya. The government denied the in Paris last month, Kamto promised to protect Biya and his family if he wins October's election. "When you do me the great of honour of entrusting me with the reins, you can be sure that nothing will happen to Mr Biya and his family. Nothing. I guarantee it, I have no time for hatred. I [only] have time to build Cameroon with you," he told thousands of Cameroonians living in the diaspora who had turned up to his rally on 31 did not go down well with ruling party officials, with one calling his comments "pathetic"."What protection do they need? Which family are we talking about?," asked Labour Minister Grégoire Owona in a Facebook post, adding, "Cameroon is not in danger."Following Kamto's return, security has been tightened in parts of officers on the ground told the BBC on Monday that they had been instructed to watch the neighbourhood where Kamto was staying, and the media was not allowed to film. Footage filmed in the city on Sunday evening showed Kamto telling supporters "as I speak, I'm still sequestered". "Go home in calm and dignity," he told chanting supporters who had gathered at the and gendarme officers had also restricted access to the CRM party building that Kamto was trying to reach, saying the meeting was not Kamto denies this, saying local authorities and law enforcement officials were informed that he was coming to the city for a the election approaches, rights groups have condemned the government's crackdown on dissent in the Central African elections that were also supposed to take place earlier this year have been delayed until 2026. Biya has been in power for 42 years and is one of the world's oldest heads of state. Last year the country banned reports on the president's health, following rumours that he had died. Kamto's eligibility to run for the presidency is in question, because Cameroonian law demands that any political party must already have elected representatives in place if its leader wishes to run for the last presidential election Kamto's CRM party had one senator, but going into this election it has no elected Kamto could run as an independent candidate, for which he would need 300 signatures from designated personalities from across the Kamto insists there is "no legal obstacle" stopping his bid for the presidency, and CRM representative Guy Tassé told the AFP news agency that there was "a political manoeuvre by the regime to try to block the candidate they fear because he embodies real change".The country is also in the throes of a separatist insurgency - with rebels demanding independence for Cameroon's two English-speaking provinces, which are home to 20% of the the near-decade since the conflict began, at least 6,000 people have been killed and hundreds of thousands forced from their homes. You may also be interested in: 'Nowhere is safe' - Cameroonians trapped between separatists and soldiersArt curator Koyo Kouoh dies at height of careerThe lawyer risking everything to defend LGBT rightsPaul Biya: Cameroon's 'absentee president' Go to for more news from the African us on Twitter @BBCAfrica, on Facebook at BBC Africa or on Instagram at bbcafrica
Yahoo
11-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Art curator Koyo Kouoh dies at height of career
Koyo Kouoh, one of the art world's leading figures and a fierce advocate of African creatives, has died aged 57. A Cameroon-born curator, Kouoh had been at the height of her career. She was due to become the first African woman to lead next year's Venice Biennale, one of the world's most prestigious contemporary art events, and led one of Africa's largest contemporary art museums. The cause of Kouoh's unexpected death has not yet been made public. The curator passed away in Switzerland, according to reports. South African artist Candice Breitz described Kouoh as "magnificently intelligent, endlessly energetic and formidably elegant". Otobong Nkanga, a Nigerian visual artist, called the late curator a source of warmth, generosity and brilliance". Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni also spoke of Kouoh's impact, saying her passing "leaves a void in the world of contemporary art". Kouoh's colourful life began in 1967, when she was born in Cameroon, a Central African country with a rich artistic heritage. She grew up in the country's largest city, Douala, before moving to Switzerland aged 13. There, she studied business administration and banking but, in a pivotal moment, chose not to pursue finance as a career. "I am fundamentally uninterested in profit," she explained in a 2023 interview with the New York Times. Rather than building on her degree, Kouoh assisted migrant women as a social worker and began to immerse herself in the world of art. She gave birth to her son in Switzerland during the 90s, an experience she described as "profoundly transformative". She would go on to adopt three other children. Fed up with life in the Swiss city of Zurich, Kouoh returned to Africa in 1996. She worked as a curator in Senegalese capital city Dakar, before founding Raw Material Company, an expansive, independent art hub. Just last week, and six years into her role as the director of South Africa's Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa, Kouoh reflected on her love for Dakar. "Dakar made me who I am today," she told the Financial Times. "It's the place I came of age professionally, where I really became a curator and an exhibition-maker... I'm in Cape Town now but, mentally, I live in Dakar. It's the one and only place for me." When Kouoh took the top job at Zeitz, Africa's biggest contemporary art museum, the institution was in crisis. Founding director Mark Coetzee had been suspended in 2018 following allegations of staff harrasment and later resigned. Kouoh has been widely credited with turning Zeitz's fortunes around, leading it through the scandal, as well as the Covid pandemic. "For me, it became a duty to salvage this institution," she told The Art World: What If…?! podcast. "I was convinced that the failure of Zeitz, if it had failed would've been the failure of all of us African art professionals in the field, somehow indirectly." As Zeitz's director and curator, Kouoh oversaw a number of acclaimed exhibitions, including When We See Us: A Century of Black Figuration in Painting. The show, which brings together works by black artists from the last century, is currently on display in Brussels. In a statement announcing Kouoh's "sudden" death, Zeitz expressed its "profound sorrow" and said that, out of respect, the museum would be closed "until further notice". In her Financial Times interview last week, Kouoh challenged the idea that death would bring an end to her endeavours. "I do believe in life after death, because I come from an ancestral black education where we believe in parallel lives and realities," she said. "There is no 'after death', 'before death' or 'during life'. It doesn't matter that much. I believe in energies - living or dead - and in cosmic strength." The Ivorian artist 'not surprised' to be a best-seller Mother's joy as son named world's youngest male artist Ethiopian artist Julie Mehretu breaks African art-world record again Go to for more news from the African continent. Follow us on Twitter @BBCAfrica, on Facebook at BBC Africa or on Instagram at bbcafrica Africa Daily Focus on Africa
