The demonstrators were commemorating Martyrs Week in honour of those who died in the 2008 February riots, and also to call for President Paul Biya to step down after 28 years in office.

The opposition figures were arrested around midday, Wednesday, February 23, in separate instances at ‘Salle de Fetes’ at Akwa and Bessengue neighbourhoods in the Douala metropolis, ahead of a planned protest march by the opposition, and driven off to an unknown destination.

Cameroon O’bosso leader faced the wrath of the police as she and her supporters in their red Tee-shirts bearing the inscriptions “Degage Biya” (Biya Should Quit) blocked the road at Bessengue roundabout.

The police pounced on the more than two dozen supporters of Cameroon O’bosso, preventing them from fulfilling their mission.

Africanews.com gathered from two separate journalists in Cameroon’s economic capital, Douala; Joe Pefok and Bernard Manyo that Kah Walla was later admitted at a private clinic in Bonanjo, where she was said to be receiving medical care.

Hon. Nintcheu, who was the main target, was arrested at Bessengue alongside the Chairman of the Douala I Electoral District of the SDF, Adolphe Same Lottin. They were also molested and sprayed with water cannons.

As Nintcheu tried to resist, the troops turned their water canon on him. He was forced by the water cannon into a nearby cybercafé, where security forces blocked him for a long time.

Meanwhile, Anicet Ekane and three others were tortured and arrested at Salle de Fetes as they assembled to lead the peaceful demonstration.

They were forced into a police van and taken to PK 14 a neighbourhood in the outskirts of Douala, where they were dumped and abandoned to themselves.

Several militants of opposition parties as well as activists were arrested or brutalised. In the early morning of Wednesday, February 23, security forces arrested four youth at the Bonadibong neighbourhood in Douala, for wearing red Tee-shirts as requested by Kah Walla.

Governor steps in

However, on February 22, Littoral Governor, Francis Fai Yengo, spoke over national radio, CRTV, urging the population to ignore calls by the opposition for a public demonstration. For the first time, the Governor acknowledged that tracts had been circulating in the economic capital and warned that anyone caught trying to instigate the population to riot would face the music.

He also said the administration would do all it could to bring peace and security, and confirmed the increase in the number of security officers in the city.

In the evening of Wednesday, February 23, calm had momentarily returned in Douala.

In Yaoundé, Cameroon’s political capital, Gendarme officers are reported to be positioned in strategic corners of the city. The surveillance is at the behest of the Secretary of State at the Ministry of Defence, Jean Baptiste Bokam, asking the security operatives to gather information concerning those who are making moves to foment trouble in the country.

The Gendarmerie boss is said to have told his men to be ready to track down those who perpetuate public disorder and uprisings.

To him information is central in maintaining security, and called his troops to trace those behind calls for secession, infiltrate their groups and foil their bad intensions.

In Buea, the capital of the Southwest Region of Cameroon and other major towns, this reporter gathered, the call by opposition leaders in Cameroon to get out to the streets, donning red tee-shirts and protest against the Biya government was not heeded.