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AP journalist detained in Cameroon while reporting on U.S. deportees

Five detained journalists and lawyer were released after police seized their equipment citing sensitive government information linked to a secretive U.S. migrant deportation program.

  • On Feb 17, an Associated Press reporter was beaten and briefly detained in Yaounde alongside three other journalists and lawyer Joseph Awah Fru while interviewing deportees at a state-run compound, with freelance journalist Randy Joe Sa'ah describing it as `an extremely stressful experience.`
  • The compound was reported as a detention centre for African migrants recently deported from the U.S. by the Department of Homeland Security, raising the total to 17 deportees with withholding-of-removal protections.
  • Authorities separated and interrogated the journalists at the judicial police headquarters, where some were held in a cell for hours and police confiscated phones, cameras and laptops.
  • All five detainees were later freed, but Cameroon's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Justice and police headquarters did not respond to requests, and the U.S. State Department could not be reached.
  • A federal court ruling on third‑country deportations challenges US policies, as migrants in Cameroon face pressure from local authorities to return or face indefinite detention, human‑rights observers say.
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While trying to meet the migrants expelled from the United States and detained in Yaoundé, four journalists and one lawyer were briefly arrested by the police, and their equipment was seized.

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Cameroon News Agency broke the news in on Wednesday, February 18, 2026.
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