By Hope Nda
Tem Clovis woke up early Monday, October 5, ready to go about his daily activities when he heard commotion about 200 meters from his home in Muea’s Quarter 11 neighborhood in Buea. Three people had been killed, he learned, and their bodies dumped at the St Andrew’s Catholic primary school field. As residents rushed to the scene, Clovis joined them, unaware that he was going to see his twin brother, Tem Elvis’ face for the last time.
Elvis’ battered body was among the three corpses discovered that morning. Residents said the bodies bore wounds suggesting gunshot injuries, alongside bruises and other signs they believed indicated severe torture. But beyond the condition of the bodies, the circumstances surrounding the killings remained unclear. Who killed the three men? Where were they killed? And would anyone be held accountable?
For Clovis and his family, the questions were very painful because Elvis was reportedly in detention when he died. The twins had been arrested nearly a month earlier during a security operation (calee calee) in Muea. Clovis had been released two days before his brother’s body was found, while Elvis remained in custody.
A close relative, who spoke to The Post Tuesday, October 6, on condition of anonymity for safety reasons, said the family had been told Elvis was ill with diarrhea in detention and that Clovis was expected to return that Tuesday with FCFA 10,000 to help pay for his medical care. Instead, the family discovered his body at the school field on Monday morning.
The family has yet to establish what happened to Elvis between his arrest and the discovery of his body. It has also been unable to identify those responsible for his death or determine whether an investigation has been opened.
His case indicates a bigger problem in Cameroon’s conflict-hit Northwest and Southwest regions, where civilians have been killed in circumstances that often leave their families struggling to establish the truth. Nearly ten years after the armed conflict began, allegations of extrajudicial killings, torture and unlawful detention continue to raise questions about who is held responsible when civilians die at the hands of armed actors.
From Detention To Death
Tem Elvis was among three youths killed in Muea
Elvis and Clovis were reportedly arrested on Thursday, September 3, by men they believed to be Cameroonian security forces during a routine security patrol, known locally as calee calee, in Muea.
The operation reportedly followed an attack earlier that day by men believed to be separatist fighters who had stormed the area on the Muea market day and fired shots for several minutes before disappearing. The attack was said to have been intended to enforce separatist calls for a lockdown.
According to the relative, the twins were among several young men taken from their homes, forced into military and police pickup vehicles and transported to an undisclosed detention facility in Buea.
“They were taken from here alongside other guys from the quarter. There were up to five of them. We didn’t know who took them. So the other guys in the quarter were released, but we heard our twin brothers had been detained where Amba fighters are usually kept,” the relative told The Post.
The family later learned that the brothers had been interrogated over alleged links to separatist fighters, accusations they denied.
“They were interrogated whether they were separatist fighters and they denied — and these guys have never been into such activities,” the relative added.
The family said it learned the twins were being held by security forces through other youths from the neighborhood who had also been arrested, interrogated and released.
While the other youths returned home, Elvis remained in custody. The family told us they could not establish the exact military or police facility where he was being held.
“My two brothers remained in custody until Saturday, October 3, when the other twin, Tem Clovis, was released,” the relative said.
Clovis was reportedly told to return to the detention facility on Sunday, October 4, with FCFA 10,000 to help provide medical care for his brother, who had allegedly fallen ill in custody.
After Clovis returned home, the family decided he should take the money back on Tuesday, October 6. But on Monday, October 5, they learned that Elvis was dead.
“But we woke up on Monday to discover the twin brother’s body at the Catholic School Field. Three corpses were there, so we identified him among them,” the relative said.
Muea residents reported hearing brief gunfire at about 2 am that Monday morning. They suspected the victims had been killed elsewhere and their bodies brought to the field because there was no visible blood at the scene. The Post could not independently establish where the men were killed or whether their deaths were connected.
The two other victims were not identified by residents who gathered at the scene.
Elvis, a native of Kuk village in Menchum Division of the Northwest Region, lived with his family in Quarter 11, Upper Muea. He was well known in the neighborhood, making his death all the more devastating for those who knew him.
The relative said Elvis’ body was severely bruised, his hands were broken at the elbows, and he had a deep wound on the side of his abdomen.
“The corpse was not in a state that we could keep in the mortuary. So we had to do everything possible to put it in the grave. It had too many wounds. There were signs of torture and they had tied his hands. The two hands were broken and the stomach had a deep wound to the side,” the relative said.
The family’s account of the injuries could not be independently verified. No official explanation of the circumstances surrounding Elvis’ death was available to The Post.
For the family, however, the most immediate concern is how a man reportedly held in custody ended up dead, his body bearing injuries consistent with the relatives’ allegations of torture, without a clear account of what happened to him.
Cross-section population gathered at horrific scene of Muea killings
A Burial Without Answers
The family said it could not keep Elvis’ body for long because of its condition. After obtaining burial authorisation from the police, relatives buried him at their home in Muea.
The circumstances also raise concerns about the two unidentified men found alongside Elvis. Their identities, the events leading to their deaths and whether their families know what happened to them remain unclear.
Without clear identification and investigations into the three deaths, those responsible may never be established, leaving the victims’ families with little prospect of obtaining justice.
Although officers from the Muea police station stopped at the scene, The Post could not independently establish whether an investigation had been opened into the killings.
The absence of answers adds to the family’s grief. The family insists Elvis was taken from home and had not been involved in separatist activities. They believe he died without being given an opportunity to defend himself against any allegations.
“If Elvis had been taken while stealing or doing some dangerous activity, we would not be crying. But they met him in the house, took him from there and killed him without any crime committed,” the relative told The Post.
The family’s account has not been independently corroborated by an official investigation. However, it shows the difficulties families face when relatives are whisked off into custody and later found dead, with no publicly established explanation of the circumstances.
Pattern Of Unaccounted Killings
Elvis’ death is one of many tragedies associated with the armed conflict in Cameroon’s Northwest and Southwest regions, where civilians have suffered violence at the hands of both security and defence forces and separatist fighters.
According to the United Nations, more than 6,000 people have been killed since the conflict began in 2017. The death toll might be well above 10,000, according to recent data released by the Global Campaign for Peace & Justice in Cameroon and the Centre for Human Rights and Democracy in Africa (CHRDA).
Human rights organisations and victims have repeatedly accused both sides of abuses, including extrajudicial killings, torture, arbitrary arrests, incommunicado detention and kidnappings.
While the allegations involve different perpetrators and circumstances, they point to the persistent difficulty of establishing responsibility for civilian deaths and ensuring that those responsible are held accountable.