Death threat against human rights defender Jules Dumas Nguebou
On 26 August 2020, human rights defender Jules Dumas Nguebou received a phone call from an unknown individual informing him that he had received orders to kill him.
Jules Dumas Nguebou is a human rights defender and the director of Actions Solidaires de Soutien aux Organisations et d’Appui aux Libertés (Solidarity Actions in Support of Organizations and in Support of Freedoms - ASSOAL), an organization that fights against the eviction and land grabbing of vulnerable populations. ASSOAL works for better municipal governance and better access to basic social services while encouraging citizens of deprived neighbourhoods to promote their rights and participate in public policies to improve their living conditions.
On 26 August 2020, human rights defender Jules Dumas Nguebou received a phone call from an unknown individual informing him that he had received orders to kill him.
Jules Dumas Nguebou is a human rights defender and the director of Actions Solidaires de Soutien aux Organisations et d’Appui aux Libertés (Solidarity Actions in Support of Organizations and in Support of Freedoms - ASSOAL), an organization that fights against the eviction and land grabbing of vulnerable populations. ASSOAL works for better municipal governance and better access to basic social services while encouraging citizens of deprived neighbourhoods to promote their rights and participate in public policies to improve their living conditions.
On 26 August 2020, around 9:15 a.m., the secretary of ASSOAL received a phone call from a man reportedly identifying himself as a police commissioner and having a message to give to Jules Dumas Nguebou. As the defender was not present, the caller left his number. When Jules Dumas Nguebou called him back, the interlocutor announced that he had received money from a woman to kill him and proposed to meet the defender. After the call, the human rights defender filed a complaint at the gendarmerie of Yaoundé and an investigation was opened. The gendarmes tried to call back the number but the individual did not respond.
The human rights defender believes he is being targeted for his work against evictions and land grabbing from several communities in different districts of Yaoundé and Douala. Since the beginning of the year 2020, the organization ASSOAL has supported the documentation of cases of victims of eviction and land grabbing for their administrative and judicial procedures. In April 2020, ASSOAL published a report on the management of the covid-19 crisis, highlighting the limits of some governmental measures and human rights abuses.
This incident is not isolated as Jules Dumas Nguebou has been targeted several times in reprisal for his human rights work. In September 2017, following several activities of ASSOAL against evictions and land grabbing, the human rights defender received phone calls threatening him if he did not leave the city of Yaoundé. On 4 October 2017, unknown individuals broke into his house while his family was sleeping, killed his dog and stole electronic equipment including his work laptop.
On 30 March 2018, 5 armed individuals broke into Jules Dumas Nguebou’s home and asked for his whereabouts injuring with a machete a security guard who told them that the defender was not at home. The defender's family hid in the house and the assailants fled when neighbours arrived. Jules Dumas Nguebou filed a complaint about the break-in and the attack, but has not received any information about the investigation to date.
Front Line Defenders is seriously concerned about the death threat and the targeting of human rights defender Jules Dumas Nguebou as it strongly believes that it is directly linked to his peaceful and legitimate work in defence of human rights.
