We’ve all sent a text that we regret. That moment of horror when you wake up after a heavy night out to find the string of embarrassing messages you’ve sent to your crush. When you write something mean in the heat of the moment during an argument and realise you can’t take it back. In 2014, Fomusoh Ivo Feh, about to start university in Cameroon, forwarded a text that changed everything. Ivo received a joke message from a friend commenting on how difficult it is to find a job in Cameroon without a lot of qualifications. The text said that even Boko Haram, an armed terrorist organisation based in Nigeria and Cameroon, require at least four high school grades to join. This message was intercepted by a teacher who reported it to the police. Ivo and his friends were then arrested and charged with several offences, including attempting to organise a rebellion, due to Cameroon’s draconian anti-terrorism laws. They face the prospect being sentenced to twenty years in jail by military trial, all because of a text.

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