Two men were killed by the security forces in Cameroon,...

Two men were killed by the security forces in Cameroon, apparently caught up in a controversial crackdown on crime. One of the men, Luc Benoit Bassileken, 33, was killed at the Bertaut naval base in Douala, nicknamed Kosovo because of the many summary executions alleged to have been carried out there. Colonel Bobbo Ousmanou of the paramilitary gendarmerie said that Bassileken was shot by a sergeant but said that this was after he had seized a weapon from one of the officers and attempted to escape. The second man killed was a taxi driver, Paul Petchueke, 42, who died in Douala under a hail of bullets from a mixed team of soldiers, police and gendarmes when he stopped to buy cigarettes, Le Messager said, quoting witnesses. It was unclear what prompted them to open fire. The Catholic Cardinal of Douala, Christian Tumi, wrote an open letter to the authorities in July complaining about what he called summary executions.