Cameroon has imprisoned an activist who posted videos on TikTok urging democratic change ahead of 2025 presidential elections, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said.

Social media activist Junior Ngombe was arrested outside his shop in the western city of Douala on 24 July by three plainclothes men claiming to be intelligence officers, the rights group said in a statement published Monday.

The arrest of the 23-year-old activist, who is also a hairdresser, has prompted an outcry over what international human rights groups call a growing crackdown on freedom of expression under 91-year-old President Paul Biya, in power for 42 years.

Ngombe was taken to a detention facility in the capital Yaounde, which HRW says is notorious for practising incommunicado detention and torture, including near-drownings and severe beatings.

Ngombe's lawyers said he had been charged with "incitement to rebellion" and "propagation of false information", which they believe to be linked to videos he posted on social media.

In his posts on TikTok, Ngombe encouraged people to vote in the presidential election and challenged the Cameroonian authorities' crackdown on dissent.

"We are millions of young Cameroonians who are suffering under the more than 40-year reign of the RDPC," Ngombe said in a video in mid-April, referencing Biya's ruling party, the Cameroon People's Democratic Movement.

Since his arrest, civil society and opposition figures have clamoured for his release, using the hashtag #FreeJuniorNgombe on social networks.

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Accept Manage my choices 'Peaceful demands'

HRW urged Cameroon's authorities to "listen to peaceful demands for reform instead of stifling freedom of expression".

"They should immediately release Ngombe and drop the charges against him."

Biya and his government are regularly accused by international human rights organisations of repressing all opposition.

The long-serving president was re-elected in 2018 to his seventh term after a contested vote that sparked a wave of political repression.

The day before Ngombe's arrest, HRW had warned that Cameroon was implementing measures designed to limit freedom of expression.

For its part, the government has denounced "the rise in insulting remarks against the institutions and those who embody them" in the run-up to the vote.

(with AFP)