Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what recent assessment he has made of the state of (a) civil and (b) political rights in Cameroon.

The UK continues to monitor civil and political rights in Cameroon. I [Minister Mitchell] reiterated the importance of rule of law and human rights to Cameroon's Minister of Defence in January 2023. The British High Commission raised media freedom and the death of the journalist Martinez Zogo with the Cameroon Deputy Foreign Minister in February 2023 and has publicly condemned the torture and killing of journalists in Cameroon. The UK also welcomes the Human Rights Watch 2023 report on Cameroon, which detailed the crackdown on political opposition.