Amnesty International is urging the Cameroonian authorities to immediately release Albert Mukong, a former executive director of the Human Rights Defence Group (HRDG) and a reputable human rights defender, who was arrested on 28 September by the gendarmerie at Ayukaba, in South West Province.

Cameroon's ruling party won 16 out of 17 seats in parliamentary re-elections held on Sunday, after irregularities in the original poll in June, Cameroon Radio and Television reported on Tuesday.

Opposition parties in Cameroon have continued to suffer the fallout of municipal and legislative elections on 30 June in which they lost much of the ground they won in 1997.

Troubling memories of Belgium's cruel colonial past have been reawakened by an exhibition in which eight pygmies from Cameroon perform for tourists in a manner which campaigners have claimed is racist and neo-colonial.

For years, populations in northern Cameroon have had to live with bandits and the impact of banditry on economic activities, transport and ordinary people's lives.