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Police use water cannon and tear gas on protestors

Monday, 19 July 2021 04:30

Pixabay (file image)

Geneva police used water cannon, rubber bullets and tear gas to quell a demonstration on the Place des Nations on Saturday.

Around a hundred were protesting against a private visit of the Cameroonian president, Paul Biya.

Authorities had already banned any protest, fearful it could turn violent.

Biya is currently staying in the Hotel Intercontinental. Some members of the crowd tried to break in to the hotel and others tried to climb the gates of the UN.

The demonstrators denounced Switzerland as being an accomplice of Biya. The Cameroonian president is accused of human rights abuses, corruption and election rigging. He’s run the country since the eighties. 

11 people have already been fined for various violations and one person has been given a suspended prison sentence. 
 

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