Dakar, September 24, 2026—The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on Cameroonian authorities to hold to account those behind the detention of four journalists suspected of stealing a minister’s glasses, in a scandal that has led to calls for a boycott of the minister’s events.
The journalists were released on Monday without charge. Solange Djuikam spent seven nights in cells, while François Essomba, Igor Gwet Bibey, and Pierre Mouchili were held for five nights.
“François Essomba, Igor Gwet Bibey, Solange Djuikam, and Pierre Mouchili’s experience of arbitrary detention highlights the terrifying reality of being a journalist in Cameroon, where an ordinary day of reporting can turn into a nightmare,” said Moussa Ngom, CPJ’s Francophone Africa representative. “Cameroonian authorities should establish who is responsible for this inexcusable abuse of media professionals, hold them accountable, and ensure that journalists’ rights and dignity are protected while carrying out their work.”
On September 14,
Univers Info Net
’s publishing director Djuikam was arrested by two women who identified themselves as police officers and accused her of stealing economy minister Alamine Ousmane Mey’s glasses at the start of a three-day Islamic Development Bank conference in the capital Yaoundé, the journalist told CPJ.
On September 16,
ChinAfrica
newspaper’s correspondent Essomba, Inform Plus newspaper’s publishing director Bibey, and Le Procès International newspaper’s publishing director Mouchili were also arrested on suspicion of stealing the glasses at the conference center.
The glasses were found in Mey’s car later that day,
local
media
quoted the ministry’s communications unit as saying and Thierry Eba, president of the National Trade Union of Information and Communication Professionals (SPIC), told CPJ.
SPIC officials accompanied the four journalists to a
meeting
with the government spokesperson René Emmanuel Sadi on September 23.
Sadi described it to CP
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