Rise in femicides in Cameroon spurs protests and demands for better laws

Cameroonian teacher Geraldine Ashiya was barely two months into her marriage when she died in September. Her relatives allege that her husband beat her to death and demand justice in what they call a gender-based crime. Ashiya is one of nearly 70 women who were killed in Cameroon this year because of their gender, a number on the rise according to the government. While I was in the market, they just called me, my husband called me, they called him that Geraldine has been beaten to death by the husband and they have rushed her to the hospital at Messasi and she's already confirmed it. I just rushed and came there while they saw her lifeless body and I couldn't see the husband. They said the husband has run away. The rise in gender-based killings of femicides has sparked protests and calls for government action as many of these crimes remain unsolved while others go unreported. Ashiya's relatives say they are not only worried about justice for her but also for other victims of femicide. So what happened to my sister is a strategy that I can never forget. It has left something in me that I will never live to forget it. But what I am asking is that I want justice to prevail for my sister because she has died an innocent death. Activists say femicide in Cameroon is mostly driven by economic dependence unequal control over family property and lack of adequate laws. When you tell a woman to leave her abuser without being able to tell her where she and her children will sleep tomorrow, that is a cause. She stays because she has nowhere else to go, and so she is forced to stay with her abuser until she dies. So that is a cause of femicide. As long as the government hasn't set up emergency shelters, women will continue to stay with their abusers because they have nowhere to go, neither for themselves nor for their children. The Cameroonian government is working on a new bill that would establish femicide as a standalone criminal offence while also strengthening broader protections against gender-based violence.