Buea 12 January 2022, CHRDA strongly condemns the barbaric murder of Senator Henry Kemende Gamsey in Bamenda by unidentified gunmen.

On the night of January 11, 2022, a Senator of the Republic of Cameroon, representing the Mezam constituency in the Northwest Region, Barrister Henry Kemende Gamsey, also a member of the SDF political party and the Cameroon Bar Association, was shot and killed in Bamenda, the capital of the Northwest Region.

The Senator, who was also the head of the Posterity Law Office, Commercial Avenue, Bamenda, was pulled out from his car and shot. According to a witness, a close collaborator of the Senator, his car was stopped around 07:30 pm at Mile 2 Nkwen, Bamenda, by unidentified gunmen, who forced him out of the car and shot him instantly.

Barrister Kemende died on the way to the hospital. Before being attacked, he held a meeting at his Posterity Law Office from 5pm to 6pm. He then left the office, driving in his private car to Nkwen Quarter to pick up one of his workers to take him home. It was after dropping off the worker that he was attacked and killed by gunmen who offered no word on why they shot him.

At the time of this report, no one has claimed responsibility for his death. However, members of his law office, some of whom had been at the meeting shortly before his death, confirmed that he had been receiving a multitude of threats against his life from armed separatist fighters and government forces alike.

CHRDA strongly condemns the barbaric murder of Senator Kemende and calls on the Government of Cameroon to carry out a fair and impartial investigation into the killing. Senator Kemende is one of the highest-level officials to have been killed by gunshots in the context of the Anglophone Crisis in Cameroon. 

We also support the calls from Barrister Kemende's family and the Posterity Law Office for an impartial investigation into the death threats that he and members of his law office have faced. This must include death threats related to their defence of the rights of the Tudig Community in the Northwest Region and of Jan Cappelle, a Belgian national who was expelled from Cameroon. 

Two UN reports on reprisals in Cameroon in 2020 and 2021, A/HRC/48/28(2021) and A/HRC/45/36(2020), mentioned the Tudig case and made recommendations for the government to investigate the death threats against members of the office, including two assassination attempts on one of the lawyers. No investigations were carried out. We add our voice to those calling on the government to investigate the killing of Senator Kemende and the death threats to the law office, and to provide protection to them and his family.

The Centre for Human Rights and Democracy in Africa (CHRDA) is an independent, non-governmental, apolitical and non-profit making organization created in 2005, dedicated to the protection and advancement of human rights and the promotion of democracy as a political culture in Africa. The CHRDA is based in Buea in the Southwest Region of Cameroon.

For more information, please contact:

CHRDA: chrda@chrda.org