(MENAFN) Cameroonian opposition veteran Anicet Ekane has died while in state custody, weeks after being detained during demonstrations challenging the outcome of the country’s recent presidential election, according to statements from his party and official sources.

Ekane, 74, who led the African Movement for New Independence and Democracy (MANIDEM), was taken into custody on October 24 alongside several other activists following rallies accusing authorities of manipulating the October 12 vote, which resulted in 92-year-old President Paul Biya securing another term. His legal team said he was being held on allegations of inciting insurrection and acting with hostility toward the state.

In a statement issued Monday, MANIDEM said Ekane died while “in arbitrary detention” at the State Secretariat for Defense (SED) in Yaounde after “being deprived for several days of his oxygen extractor, the medical equipment he needed, as well as access to his pulmonologist.”

The party denounced the incident as “a crime of state, the unacceptable treatment inflicted on Anicet Ekane, who had always fought for liberties, social justice, sovereignty and the dignity of the Cameroonian people.”

Another senior party figure, Augusta Epanya, described his death as “a political assassination.”

According to reports, Ekane’s lawyer Emmanuel Simh said the opposition leader was “critically sick” but was not granted the medical care he required while imprisoned.

Officials have rejected those claims, asserting that Ekane received “appropriate care” from both military medical personnel and his own doctors during his detention.

Cameroon’s minister of communication, Rene Emmanuel Sadi, has offered the government’s condolences to Ekane’s relatives and announced that President Biya has ordered a formal inquiry into how the 74-year-old politician died.

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