Mancho Bibixy, a local radio host popularly known as BBC, from Cameroon’s English-speaking Northwest Region, was sentenced to 15 years in prison in 2018 on multiple charges including secession, insurrection, and spreading false information. He was tried in a military court, alongside two other journalists and four other Anglophone detainees. In 2019, Bibixy was sentenced to an additional two years, after protesting poor prison conditions.
Bibixy appealed his original conviction, which was partially overturned in 2021. In 2023, he appealed to the Supreme Court but no hearing date had been set as of late 2024.
Bibixy hosted three radio shows in Bamenda, the capital of Northwest Region, on the privately owned Abakwa FM, including a popular pidgin-language news review called “Comedy Show,” which criticized the marginalization of English speakers, a person familiar with the case told CPJ on condition of anonymity, citing fear of reprisals.
On the show, Bibixy discussed protests over the use of French in minority English-speaking regions, which marked the start of the Anglophone crisis in 2016. The government’s deadly crackdown triggered a secessionist rebellion and conflict that has escalated in recent years, with about 600,000 people internally displaced and 1.7 million in need of humanitarian aid, according to Human Rights Watch.
Before his arrest, Bibixy was repeatedly summoned by authorities, including the police and the communication ministry regional representative, who played excerpts from his show and accused him of “fighting the state,” the person familiar with his case told CPJ.
On January 17, 2017, Bibixy was arrested by armed soldiers who forced their way into his friend’s house in Bamenda, according to the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention.
On May 25, 2018, a military court in the capital Yaoundé sentenced Bibixy to 15 years in prison and a fine of 268 million CFA francs (US$479,850), according to news reports and a copy of the judgment reviewed by CPJ. Bibixy was found guilty of terrorism, secession, hostility to the fatherland, spreading false information, revolution, insurrection, rebellion, and contempt for civil servants. Six other Anglophone detainees were sentenced on similar charges, including journalists Tsi Conrad and Thomas Awah Junior.
In 2019, a protest by Kondengui Central Prison inmates over overcrowding and delays in hearing their cases, resulted in the temporary transfer of Bibixy and about 100 other prisoners to a Yaoundé detention facility, where they were held incommunicado for two weeks, according to the person familiar with the case and Human Rights Watch.
On August 8, 2019, the Ekounou Court of First Instance charged Bibixy with group rebellion, arson, attempt to escape, looting, and causing bodily harm, that person told CPJ.
On September 9, 2019, Bibixy was found guilty of group rebellion and sentenced to an additional two years. Bibixy appealed, and on October 29, 2019, the Yaoundé Appeals Court delivered a judgment in French, that person said.
In 2019, the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention found that Bibixy was arbitrarily detained and directed the government to take remedial action, including his immediate release.
In Bibixy’s main case, on August 19, 2021, a military appeals tribunal overturned his terrorism and rebellion convictions but upheld the other six charges, according to Bibixy’s lawyer Ngang Ngu Fonguh and a copy of the judgment reviewed by CPJ. It also dropped the fine and reduced court fines from 31.7 million to 2.5 million CFA francs (US$54,342 to $4,291) to be divided among the seven Anglophone defendants, Fonguh said.
In 2023, a joint submission by CPJ, the American Bar Association, and Freedom House to the U.N. Human Rights Council for Cameroon’s Universal Periodic Review called on Cameroon to immediately free Bibixy and four other arbitrarily detained journalists.
On August 25, 2023, after delays in receiving the written judgment from the lower court. Fonguh filed an appeal in the Supreme Court, according to court documents reviewed by CPJ. As of late 2024, the Supreme Court had not set a date for a hearing, according to the person with knowledge of the case.
Bibixy’s eyesight has deteriorated in prison, and he suffers from ear, waist, and back pain, according to a person familiar with the case.
As of late 2024, CPJ’s requests for comment sent via email and messaging app to the Director of the Civil Cabinet in the Presidency Samuel Mvondo Ayolo, Prime Minister Joseph Ngute, Secretary-General of the Presidency Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh, and Cameroon’s U.S. Ambassador Henri Etoundi Essomba, and via email to Communication Minister René Sadi and Justice Minister Laurent Esso received no replies.