Cameroon Court Reduces 10-Year Sentence Against Journalist Kingsley Fomunyuy Njoka

Cameroon boasts one of Africa’s richest media landscapes. Yet it remains among the continent’s most perilous environments for journalists: ranked 131st in RSF’s Press Freedom Index, the country is notorious for arbitrary arrests, politically motivated detentions, unfair trials, kidnappings, violent attacks, and even assassinations targeting media professionals.

Late last year, however, brought a small victory for the case of freelance journalist Kingsley Fomunyuy Njoka, who spent more than five years in jail on charges of secession and collusion with an armed band.

Cameroonian freelance journalist Kingsley Fomunyuy Njoka has been released from detention after the Court of Appeal of the Centre Region Yaoundé reduced his sentence on charges of secession (section 111 of the Penal Code)and collusion with an armed band (section 115), a term used in the Penal Code to refer to an organised armed group.

The appellate court reduced his sentence from 10 years to five, meaning that Njoka was released on the basis of time already served, having spent four years in pre-trial detention prior to his trial before the Military Tribunal of Yaoundé in 2024.

The judgment, delivered on 20 November 2025, is final, as the State did not appeal within the 10-day deadline provided for by law.

Abduction, Charges and Detention

Njoka was abducted at his home in Bonaberi, Douala, Littoral Region, on 15 May 2020, by four unidentified armed men. He was taken without a warrant and was not informed of the reasons for his abduction. The men searched his home and office and seized his belongings without a search warrant.

He was taken to Centre de Reseignement Militare (CRM) under the Ministry of Defence (MINDEF) in Yaoundé, where he was held incommunicado in a make shift cell for three weeks before he was transferred to Service Central de Recherches Judiciares (SCRJ) where his lawyers were allowed to see him, according to RSF.

In June 2020, he was charged with secession and collusion with an armed group – accusations linked to alleged financial support for separatist fighters in his native Kumbo area in Cameroon’s North-West region.

Njoka subsequently spent more than four years in detention at the Kondengui Central Prison in Yaoundé – far exceeding the maximum 18-month pre-trial detention period allowed under Cameroonian law for felonious offences.

His lawyer, Amungwa Tanyi Nicodemus, a former journalist who had worked with Njoka, emphasised that Njoka was detained in squalid, degrading and inhumane conditions, which led to a range of health complications, including persistent malaria and severe stomach problems caused by overcrowding and poor sanitation.

In September 2024, he was finally tried, sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment, and ordered to pay a fine of 500,000 CFA (£617) in damages, as well as 86,000 CFA (£107) in court costs.

Amungwa noted that the proceedings constituted an unfair trial, in violation of Cameroonian and international law. “Kingsley’s trial has been one of the most sham proceedings I’ve witnessed,” he told Media Defence.

Before his arrest, Njoka worked as a correspondent for Toughtalk, a current affairs programme on Canal2 English, reporting extensively on the Anglophone crisis. References to his reporting, particularly his critical commentary on the government’s actions during the peak of the crisis in 2017, appeared in the indictment.

Njoka is also a member of the Cameroon Association of English-Speaking Journalists (CAMASEJ), according to its president Jude Viban, and worked for the Catholic biweekly magazine L’Effort Camerounais, the Catholic-owned printing house Macacos Douala, Tome Broadcasting Corporation, Magic FM, and Satellite FM Yaoundé.

The Landscape in Cameroon: The Anglophone Crisis

Njoka’s case unfolds amidst the Anglophone Crisis – a conflict between Ambazonian separatist groups and the Cameroonian government in the country’s English-speaking North-West and South-West regions.

Although long-standing grievances trace back to Cameroon’s independence in 1961 and its unification in 1972, the current phase of the crisis stems from the government’s violent repression of protests between 2016 and 2017.

These included the “Coffin Revolution”, led by common law lawyers opposing the appointment of Francophone judges to common law courts in the North-West and South-West Regions, as well as protests against the erosion of the Anglophone education subsystem.

By late 2017, tensions had escalated into armed conflict that has since claimed at least 6,000 lives, displaced hundreds of thousands, and severely restricted civic space.

Within this crisis, journalists face intimidation, arrests, kidnapping, censorship, and death. Under broad anti-terrorism laws, critical reporting is frequently criminalised as encouraging terrorism, secession, or the dissemination of “false news.”

Authorities routinely use these laws to justify trying civilians, including journalists, in military tribunals, which means defendants often do not receive a fair trial.

Many journalists are forced into self-censorship or exile, widening the gap between constitutional guarantees and the reality on the ground.

Pattern of Repression

Njoka’s case is just one part of this troubling trend. Less than a month before his arrest, another journalist, Amadou Vamoulké, former director of state broadcaster Radiotélévision camerounaise (CRTV), received a combined 32-year prison sentence on embezzlement charges widely condemned as politically motivated.

In the summer of 2019, the Anglophone journalist Samuel Ajiekha Abuwe, popularly known as Samuel Wazizi, was also abducted and accused of supporting secessionists. He later died while in military custody in circumstances which remain unclear to this day. His family – supported by Media Defence – continues to seek an independent inquiry into his death.

Their cases are not dissimilar to those of journalists Dimitri Wassouom Tchatchoua, who was sentenced to 2 years in prison in 2023, Thomas Awah Junior, who has been serving an 11-year sentence since 2018 and Martinez Zogo who was abducted, tortured and killed in 2023 after exposing state corruption.

As Amungwa’s own journey from journalist to human rights lawyer shows, even those defending press freedom find themselves increasingly targeted.

Amungwa himself is currently standing trial before the Yaoundé Military Tribunal on charges of secession, following his arrest on 31 May 2021.

He was initially detained for ten days at the Service Central de Recherches Judiciaires on spying allegations: “They claimed I was recording videos to send to separatist fighters, simply because of my public profile,” he said.

With the support of the Cameroon Bar Association, Amungwa was later released on bail and brought before an examining magistrate at the military tribunal, where he was formally charged and the case was referred to open court for trial.

The misuse of anti-terror and national security laws, combined with military trials and lengthy pre-trial detention, creates a climate of fear in Cameroon, where free expression is under constant threat.

The government has also resorted to large-scale internet shutdowns in the Anglophone region to curb dissent.

Overall, journalists in the country, particularly those from English-speaking regions, and the lawyers defending them, continue to face intimidation, arbitrary detention, and threats.

“We are happy [with the outcome in Njoka’s case], but with reservations,” Amungwa noted. “He was never supposed to be arrested as a journalist in the first place”.

Nonetheless, Amungwa noted that there is some cause for optimism. “Njoka’s release shows that we were able, as lawyers, to demonstrate that he is a journalist and could never be a terrorist [for doing journalistic work].”

Media Defence remains committed to supporting domestic lawyers, challenging abuses before international bodies and defending the right to freedom of expression in Cameroon.