Martinez Zogo, who disappeared on 17 January, was found dead on Sunday 22 January in a state of putrefaction near Yaounde.
Director of the private radio Amplitude FM, where he hosts a program called “Embouteillage”, the lifeless body of Martinez Zogo was found in Ebogo 3 in the Mefou and Afamba department, in the Central region of Cameroon.
According to images released by his family, “his body was found in a state of decomposition” in the suburbs of the city of Yaoundé. He was taken to the specialist departments for autopsy.
The host of the program “Embouteillage”, a daily program widely listened to in Yaoundé, regularly denounced the conduct of the city’s affairs. But he has been missing since Tuesday 17 January.
According to a Reporters Without Borders press release, “at around 8 p.m. on 17 January, gendarmes in Nkol-Nkondi, on the outskirts of Yaoundé, heard a loud noise coming from the entrance to their post. They discovered Martinez Zogo’s car battered, the driver had obviously tried to break down the gate. “The gendarmes noticed a black vehicle driving away. They understood, a little late, that it was a kidnapping,” the NGO continued.
The National Union of Journalists of Cameroon said in a statement its “consternation”, denouncing a “heinous murder” and calling on media workers to dress in black on Wednesday 25 January to mark their grief
The Cameroonian government announced on Sunday evening that an investigation had been opened to “find and bring to justice” the individuals who committed this appalling crime.
According to the Cameroonian authorities, this is a “heinous, unspeakable and inadmissible crime, which cannot be justified under any pretext”. The autopsy carried out at the central hospital in Yaounde on Sunday reveals that the body of Martinez Zogo “has visibly suffered significant physical abuse,” said the Cameroonian government spokesman, Emmanuel Rene Sadi.
In a report, RSF stressed that “the danger is permanent for Cameroonian journalists, who are exposed to verbal and physical attacks, arrests, SLAPP procedures and the risk of murder”.
