United States Court of Appeals For the Eighth Circuit ___________________________ No. 17-3460 ___________________________ Dereck Teke Njong lllllllllllllllllllllPetitioner v. Matthew G. Whitaker, Acting Attorney General of United States1 lllllllllllllllllllllRespondent ____________ Petition for Review of an Order of the Board of Immigration Appeals ____________ Submitted: October 15, 2018 Filed: December 28, 2018 ____________ Before SHEPHERD, KELLY, and STRAS, Circuit Judges. ____________ KELLY, Circuit Judge. Dereck Teke Njong petitions for review of a final order of removal from the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA). The BIA affirmed an order of the immigration 1 Matthew G. Whitaker has been appointed to serve as Acting Attorney General of the United States and is substituted as respondent pursuant to Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 43(c). judge (IJ) denying Njong’s application for asylum under 8 U.S.C. § 1158, withholding of removal under 8 U.S.C. § 1231(b)(3), and relief under Article III of the Convention Against Torture (CAT) pursuant to 8 C.F.R. §§ 1208.16–1208.18. I Njong is a native and citizen of Cameroon who was placed in removal proceedings after entering the United States without proper documentation in September 2016. He requested asylum, withholding of removal, and protection under the CAT, claiming persecution on account of the political opinion he exercised in Cameroon as an active member of the Southern Cameroon National Council (SCNC). Njong describes the SCNC as “a group that advocates for the rights of . . . the English-speaking Cameroonians to separate from the French.” Njong is from the English-speaking Northwestern region of Cameroon. At his hearing before the IJ on April 19, 2017, Njong testified about his involvement with the SCNC and the harm he claims to have suffered as a result. Njong testified that after joining the group, he offered his services as a professional driver to transport documents between villages. Njong stated that he offered to transport these documents because some of the SCNC meetings are held in secret. Njong testified that as a result of his SCNC affiliation, the Cameroonian gendarmerie2 detained him twice and beat him during one of those detentions. First, on September 25, 2015, the gendarmerie stopped him at a military checkpoint, found SCNC documents, arrested him, and detained him for four days. Njong testified that during this detention, where he was not physically harmed, he was interrogated as to whether he was “one of those people who want to separate Cameroon to [sic] two parts.” Njong claims that he did not respond, but that he was asked to sign a written 2 The gendarmerie is the Cameroonian National Police. -2- statement acknowledging that he would be sent to the Kondengui maximum security prison if he was later found to support the SCNC or participate in its activities. According to Njong, he was released after signing the statement. Njong testified that he was detained for a second time on May 1, 2016, after he was found transporting SCNC documents again. According to Njong, on the first and second days of his three-day detention, members of the gendarmerie beat ...
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