Four killed as Cameroon protests flare ahead of Biya's swearing in

Four people were killed and scores detained as protests spread across Cameroon on Sunday and Monday after the country’s top court declared President Paul Biya the winner of the Oct. 12 presidential election, officials and witnesses said. Violence was reported in the economic capital Douala and in northern cities where opposition supporters have concentrated, as rival claims to the vote intensified ahead of a scheduled swearing-in.

The Constitutional Council on Monday announced that Biya, 92, won with about 53.7 percent of the vote while former minister Issa Tchiroma Bakary received roughly 35.2 percent. Tchiroma has rejected the official count, saying he won the ballot and urging supporters into the streets. In an audio message calling for a three-day shutdown starting Nov. 3, Tchiroma said, "Let the entire country come to a standstill so that the whole world knows that we are resisting and that we will not yield."

Regional authorities said the four fatalities occurred in Douala during clashes between protesters and security forces. The governor of the Littoral region said demonstrators attempted to storm a gendarmerie brigade and a police station and that several security...