Cameroon: Journalist's Killing Amps Up Anger, Fear Among Peers

Cameroon's media sector has once again gone into mourning following the shooting to death in Bamenda last Sunday, of 26-year-old Anye Nde Nsoh, journalist with the privately-owned The Advocate weekly Newspaper, City FM, Dream FM as well as kick442.com. In a press release issued in the wake of the incident, the Senior Divisional Officer for Mezam Division of the North West region, Emile Simon Mooh, blamed "armed terrorists" for the journalist's gruesome killing promising investigations have been launched to "throw light on this villainous crime and to bring to book these bands of outlaw in accordance with the laws and regulations enforce."
In a separate press statement, the Cameroon Association of English-Speaking Journalists (CAMASEJ) said it condemned the killing in "strong terms" while also pointing accusing fingers at separatist fighters. "Anye Ndeh Nsoh was moonlighting as hype man [a hobby] at a pub near his house. He came in Sunday evening to do his thing [hyping] as usual. But the batteries of the microphone were weak. He decided to go and get a new set. He took along the microphone. While he was out, two gunmen stormed the pub, and identified themselves are separatist fighters [also known as Amba Boys]. The two gunmen ordered all the occupants out of the pub. They also ordered workers out of a bakery attached to the pub at gunpoint. While returning to the bar, Anye bumped into the gunmen who opened fire, shooting him on the chest," CAMASEJ President, Jude Viban, quoted an anonymous witness as saying. 
"The microphone was found close to his body," the witness reportedly said. A leader of a splinter group of a separatist movement abroad admitted in a video statement that Nsoh had been killed by one of the group’s fighters expressing regret, however, that the journalist was simply mistaken for a military commander who frequented that bar. In 2022, Nsoh received the Africa Fact-Checking Fellowship Cameroon (#AFFCameroon) award – an initiative by #defyhatenow in partnership Data Cameroon which aims at promoting fact-checking, data journalism, and digital rights among journalists, bloggers, and content creators in Africa. 
He had earlier served as communication officer for Cameroon Amputee Football, and also, the Organisation for Women’s Empowerment and Development. On Tuesday, some journalists in Bamenda took to the streets to demand justice for their murdered colleague. Colleagues and acquaintances of the promising journalist are still to come to terms with his brutal exit. "I still can't believe that my colleague and friend, Anye, is no more," said Chanceline Nanze of CRTV West regional station. "Anye was a very jovial person with a lovely personality. It's so painful talking about him in the past because a week before his demise, we met in Bamenda and he promised to visit me in Bafoussam," Nanze told Cameroon Insider. 
Elvis Ndi Tsembom Junior, publisher of The Observer news website eulogised in a Facebook post: "You're one person who never complained and who was ready to assist at the shortest call." "One week ago, I got a call that a PR/Communication Officer was needed. I immediately rang your phone but you told me you had another offer and it was on a good footing. In fact you concluded negotiations and you were due to start work on Tuesday 9th May 2023. This is how your life was ended by trigger-happy men," he wrote. 
 Nsoh's corpse has been kept at the mortuary of the Bamenda Regional Hospital. 
His death comes less than a week after media practitioners celebrated the World Press Freedom Day last May 3, and less than four months after the assassination of journalists Martinez radio and Jean-Jacques Ola Bebe in Yaounde.