By Louvier Kindo Tombe
“Digital inclusion is still a major issue across the continent, and that is why we move around the country to advocate. Internet shutdowns and digital barriers have absolutely no place among democratic institutions.”
When Thobekile Matimbe, Senior Manager for Partnerships and Engagements at Paradigm Initiative, delivered this opening volley to a room packed with journalists in Yaoundé, she humanized what many consider an abstract policy debate.
In an era where civic spaces are rapidly migrating online, the line between physical and digital human rights has entirely vanished. For Matimbe and the frontline coalition gathered in the capital, the screen has become the new battleground for human dignity.
The press conference was hosted as a central highlight of an intensive, multi-day workshop taking place at the UNITED Hotel in the heart of Yaounde. Convened on Monday, June 8, 2026, the gathering served as the official launchpad for the Digital Policy Engagement Series and the Digital Rights Academy in Cameroon.
This collaborative milestone, spearheaded by Paradigm Initiative in partnership with Civic Watch, was intentionally engineered not just to critique the status quo, but to forge a highly interactive arena where civil society, media professionals, and legal minds could collectively dissect the structural hurdles holding back the nation’s digital evolution.
Dissecting the Legal Framework
While the DRA track focuses on capacity building, the Digital Policy Engagement Series serves as the coalition’s primary vehicle for deep legislative analysis and structural reform. DIPES is designed to move beyond general advocacy and dive directly into the text of problematic laws, bringing stakeholders face-to-face with the regulators and policy actors who enforce them.
Taking the floor at the presser, Moussa Walt Sene, Programmes Officer for Francophone Africa at Paradigm Initiative, used the DIPES platform to demand an immediate re-evaluation of the country’s legal architecture.
“We need to review law sessions, specifically focusing on cybercrime and digital telecommunications,” Sene urged, pointing directly to the structural friction caused by existing cyber statutes.
On his part, Desmond Ngala of the Civic Watch Association emphasized another critical page of the playbook: the actual enforcement and local accountability of written laws.
“It is one thing to have a law anchored in an international engagement, but how well are these laws implemented locally?” Ngala questioned.
Measuring Structural Gaps: The LONDA Index
To ground these legal critiques in objective data, the coalition anchored its arguments in Paradigm Initiative’s premier annual research tool: the LONDA report. The report systematically assesses digital rights compliance across Africa, utilizing a rigorous score index to evaluate nations on digital inclusion, data protection, and state surveillance.
The latest LONDA findings expose a deeply fragmented continent driven by divergent legal and structural choices. While Southern African nations like Botswana have seen their scores rise significantly by implementing robust, independent Data Protection Acts, Central and West African nations often experience severe democratic regression.
The Cameroonian reality is visible in this matrix. Despite the recent passage of data-related legal frameworks, Cameroon’s index score has historically suffered due to a systemic failure to harmonize domestic statutes with international human rights treaties.
Civil Society’s Upfront Policy Battle
Strategically timed ahead of Cameroon’s upcoming parliamentary session, the dual launch aims to arm civil society with the advocacy tools necessary to confront the state’s expanding legal and structural barriers to internet freedoms.
The ultimate objective of the DIPES and DRA sessions in Yaoundé is to formulate concrete, actionable recommendations for the National Assembly, forcing lawmakers to amend existing texts to safeguard access to personal data, defend the absolute right to privacy, and ensure universal protection online.
Through the DIPES framework, Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) are transitioning from passive observers to active policy disruptors. In this narrative of structural reform, CSOs are coming in right at the front, utilizing public sensitization to arm citizens with digital literacy, while executing a strategic policy of “naming and shaming” institutional violators when constitutional lines are crossed.
As Thobekile Matimbe summarized: “The UN has elaborated that all rights enjoyed offline must also be enjoyed online. There is nothing new we are creating. We are advocating for the same rights articulated in existing treaties that Cameroon has signed.”
Yet, amidst the heavy focus on restrictive legal frameworks, the panel paused to praise Cameroon’s specific regulatory milestones regarding vulnerable users, proving that legislative progress is entirely possible when political will exists.
“We commend Cameroon for strides in protecting children online with a law,” Matimbe remarked, citing the nation’s dedicated child online safety statutes as a positive baseline for regional digital policy.
Ultimately, the message from the DIPES forum is clear: a free, fair, and resilient digital Africa cannot be built on administrative afterthoughts or repressive cyber laws. It requires a relentless commitment to restructuring domestic legislation so that human dignity is protected by design, both on the streets and across the airwaves.
