Services of the Douala Urban Community (CUD) identified 31 buildings with “structural defects,” including 19 that expose occupants to an “imminent risk” of collapse.

Douala Mayor Roger Mbassa Ndine disclosed the findings in a statement dated Aug. 3, 2026, after a series of inspections conducted under the city’s urban-risk prevention policy. The remaining 12 buildings present what authorities classify as an “ordinary” risk.

The city attributes the situation mainly to violations of urban-planning rules and construction standards, unauthorized works, unsuitable building materials, modifications made without technical supervision and the prolonged abandonment of some structures.

Against this backdrop, the mayor recalled that “any construction, extension, additional-floor, substantial modification or rehabilitation operation must comply with the legislative and regulatory provisions in force, particularly through the prior acquisition of the required urban-planning authorizations.”

The mayor also stressed the need to assess any building that shows signs of structural weakness before owners undertake work. He said qualified professionals must conduct the assessments before interventions to protect occupants and people living nearby.

The authorities will now handle each identified building on a case-by-case basis.

Seals

Municipal services will first conduct additional technical assessments before notifying owners, occupants or operators about the measures they must implement and the deadlines they must meet, according to the mayor.

Authorities will require owners to secure or reinforce buildings when their condition allows such interventions. However, authorities may order the immediate evacuation of the most dangerous buildings and place seals or impose other precautionary measures to prevent access.

Authorities will demolish buildings that they consider beyond repair or buildings whose owners fail to comply with administrative requirements, in accordance with regulations.

Beyond enforcement measures, Roger Mbassa Ndine urged property developers to comply strictly with technical and administrative construction rules.

He also called on residents to report buildings with major cracks, structural subsidence, unusual cracking sounds or other signs that could signal a collapse. The mayor also urged residents to report construction sites that lack the legally required display of a building permit.

The campaign follows a tragedy in Bonamoussadi, Douala, where a building collapsed in mid-July and killed six people, including three children.

The latest accident highlighted the recurring risk of building collapses in Cameroon’s economic capital and renewed calls for stricter enforcement of construction standards.

Through the campaign, the city aims to prevent further disasters by strengthening oversight of high-risk buildings and holding developers, owners and other industry stakeholders accountable.

Source: Sbbc

The Trump administration plans to close the U.S. embassy branch office in Douala, Cameroon, as it cuts smaller diplomatic posts around the world.

The closure is part of a wider State Department restructuring that also affects missions in Canada, Grenada, Indonesia and Japan. The Associated Press reported that the five closures are expected to save the U.S. government about $4.4 million a year.

For Cameroon, the decision comes after the United States shifted routine visa services across much of Africa to a smaller group of regional hubs. Yaoundé, not Douala, is one of the posts designated to handle those applications.

That distinction matters because Douala is Cameroon’s commercial centre and largest city. Business travellers, students and families dealing with U.S. visa requirements will continue to rely on Yaoundé for routine processing, even as the U.S. reduces its physical footprint in the country.

The United States has already reduced the number of African posts that handle routine visa cases. Its new hub system has added travel and accommodation costs for applicants in countries whose local embassies no longer process applications.

Cameroon has become part of a broader change in how Washington manages its relationship with African countries. The State Department says the hub model is intended to make screening and visa decisions more consistent, while the Trump administration has presented the wider restructuring as a cost-cutting exercise.

The closure does not mean the U.S. embassy in Yaoundé is shutting down, and it does not introduce a new visa rule for Cameroonians. But it removes a U.S. diplomatic office from the city where a large share of the country’s business activity is concentrated.

For companies, exporters and people who travel regularly between Cameroon and the United States, the practical issue is proximity. A more centralised system can make routine interactions with U.S. officials more difficult for people based in Douala and the surrounding Littoral region.

The shift is also likely to be watched in a country where China has expanded its commercial and infrastructure presence. The United States is narrowing some smaller posts while seeking to preserve influence through larger embassies and priority missions.

The State Department has not publicly set a closure date for the Douala office. Cameroon-based travellers should continue to use official U.S. visa instructions and the Yaoundé embassy for appointment.

Culled from African Business Insider

Cameroon’s veteran leader Paul Biya – who has not been seen in public for nearly two months – has reshuffled the country’s military amid growing concerns over his prolonged stay abroad.

The 93-year-old president appointed officials to key positions within the army and promoted five colonels to the rank of brigadier general.

One of the newly promoted brigadier generals is Raymond Jean Charles Beko’o Abondo, who was immediately reappointed as commander of the elite presidential guard – responsible for protecting Biya – a position he has occupied since 2013.

Such shake-ups are not unusual under Biya’s administration, particularly at times of intense public scrutiny or perceived weakness.

The nonagenarian president who never loses

After an unexpected coup three years ago in neighbouring Gabon, which toppled the Bongo dynasty sending shockwaves across the continent, Cameroon immediately reshuffled its military leadership.

Then, while running for a controversial eighth term in power at last year’s presidential election, Biya reshuffled the top brass of the army.

Again in June this year, he promoted several members of the defence and security forces to higher ranks.

The circumstances under which the latest changes were made have sparked debate, especially among social media users.

Biya made the appointments in separate decrees on Monday from the Swiss city of Geneva, where he has been staying since leaving Cameroon on 7 June for what his team described as a “brief private stay”.

Many in Cameroon have criticised the lack of information about his activities and the uncertainty surrounding the duration of his foreign trip.

After last year’s election, he promised to name a new cabinet, but has yet to do so. A new post of vice-president that was created this April remains unfilled.

During his nearly 60-day period abroad so far, he has signed several other decrees, including some authorising his government to sign loan agreements with international financial institutions.

His absence sparked further speculation about his health, but the government has continually debunked reports that the head of state has been in hospital.

Press freedom groups were outraged when it was announced two years ago that the media in Cameroon were banned from reporting on Biya’s health.

Cameroon’s Communication Minister René Emmanuel Sadi has said the president is alive and will be returning to the country soon, during an interview with French-language broadcaster RFI.

He also dismissed allegations by the opposition that the nonagenarian leader’s absence amounted to a vacancy at the helm of the state, saying Biya continues to work from Geneva.

But President Biya’s continuing absence means Cameroon has a “glaring institutional vacuum”, says the opposition CRM party’s vice-president, Mamadou Mota.

“Executive power is exercised at the heart of the nation, not through smoke signals or telepathy from hotel suites on the other side of the world,” he said last month.

Culled from the BBC

Non-state armed groups kidnapped 308 people in Cameroon’s Far North region between April and June 2026, up from 141 during the same period in 2025. The number of victims rose 118% year on year, according to Situation Report No. 65, published on July 31, 2026, by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

The surge in kidnappings was the clearest sign of deteriorating security in the second quarter. OCHA recorded 207 incidents attributed to non-state armed groups, leaving 72 people dead and 48 injured.

The trend contrasts sharply with the death toll. Violence killed 72 people between April and June 2026, compared with 77 during the same period a year earlier, a modest decline of 6.5%. Over the same period, kidnappings more than doubled, with 167 additional victims.

The figures suggest that the death toll alone does not capture the deterioration in security. Kidnappings were among the main threats facing civilians during the quarter in the region bordering Nigeria.

Beyond their direct impact on victims and their families, kidnappings fuel fear, restrict movement and disrupt livelihoods. They can also force residents to move to areas perceived as safer. The insecurity also limits humanitarian access to affected communities.

Two Incidents Involving Explosive Devices

OCHA also reported two incidents involving improvised explosive devices in the Logone-et-Chari division between April and June 2026, compared with none during the same period in 2025.

Two incidents are too few to establish a broader trend, but they represent an additional threat to residents and humanitarian workers, particularly on roads through conflict-affected areas.

The surge in kidnappings comes as the Far North is already grappling with overlapping humanitarian crises. OCHA cited new population displacements, a worsening measles outbreak, the emergence of cholera and persistent food insecurity.

Although the report does not directly link these crises, their convergence is increasing household vulnerability and placing further strain on the humanitarian response. The figures underscore the continuing threat to civilians in the Far North, even as the death toll remains broadly stable.

Source: Sbbc

A deserter facing an arrest warrant for fraud, the former head of Paul Biya’s military intelligence bureau has broken his silence from Europe. His accusations against the secretary-general of the presidency Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh are rocking Yaoundé.

Accusations from exile

The former intelligence chief, who is currently characterized as a deserter and is facing an arrest warrant for fraud, has used his position in Europe to target one of the most powerful figures in the Cameroonian government.

His claims against Ngoh Ngoh have triggered a political scandal in Yaoundé, as they come from an individual who once held a high-level security role within the presidency’s inner circle.

Context of the dispute

The situation is complicated by the legal status of the accuser. Having left the country, he now faces official warrants related to fraud allegations, while simultaneously attempting to challenge the reputation of the Secretary-General.

The intensity of the reaction in the capital suggests that the claims have hit a sensitive nerve within the administration of President Paul Biya.

Implications for the presidency

The scandal highlights internal frictions within Cameroon’s top security and administrative apparatus. Because the accusations originate from a former military intelligence lead, they carry a weight that typically causes significant disruption within the halls of power in Yaoundé.

As the situation develops, the presidency has yet to provide a formal response to the specific claims made from Europe.

Source: Businessselitesafrica

Speculation is swirling that President Paul Biya has suffered a massive stroke and is gravely ill in a private clinic in Geneva, Switzerland. A Belgian brain surgeon recruited by the Biya family is believed to have flown to Geneva to treat the 93-year-old dictator; a well-placed source has hinted Cameroon Intelligence Report.

Africa’s most unpredictable nation is thought to be heading for a succession crisis involving the three pillars of state – the Biya family, the army and the ruling CPDM Party… after a record 53-day absence by the world’s oldest head of state in his native Cameroon.   

There is no sign of Biya, 93, anywhere in Yaoundé and the country’s state media CRTV is silent about his absence.

“There is reason to believe President Paul Biya has suffered a serious health setback, possibly a stroke,” a Cameroonian intelligence official told Cameroon Intelligence Report, speaking on condition of anonymity.  

Another official hinted our Yaoundé City correspondent that reports of Biya’s possible health problems are based in part on intelligence gathered by several people in the know and that rumours had been circulating for months about the state of Biya’s health and his control over the Cameroon government.  

“What we do know is that he has been out of the country for 53 days now,” a CEMAC intelligence official said, speaking on condition of anonymity about the Biya administration’s internal assessment. “53 days is quite unusual and reinforces a lot of what the international community is hearing.”

While Cameroon military officials have been speaking and suing for anonymity, the CPDM government has said little publicly.

Biya’s last public appearance was in May, and rumours about his health began circulating soon after.

A top army brass, General Tchemo who recently questioned the president’s prolonged absence from the country and was sent on retirement has even stated that Biya may have died and that his acolytes may be planning to use body doubles at public events.

Biya, known to Cameroonians as “Mis-Leader in Chief,” took over the reins of Cameroon’s highly centralized Francophone dominated government when the late President Ahmadou Ahidjo resigned.

Biya has so many children from different mothers, but has not publicly named any of them as his successor.

His rumoured health issues come as Cameroon is facing the worst socio-economic crisis it’s seen since the 1990s.

The army and the national gendarmerie are holding secret talks about their shared fear of instability.

By Rita Akana

A record 53-day absence by the world’s oldest head of state has renewed speculation in his native Cameroon about whether he is dead or alive, even though discussing his health is illegal in the country.

On 7 June, 93-year-old Paul Biya left for Switzerland for what officials described as a “brief private stay” alongside his wife, Chantal. Almost two months later, neither the president nor the first lady have addressed the country or been seen publicly.

Biya, who took office in 1982 after a seven-year stint as prime minister, has taken increasingly long absences from Cameroon in recent years, spending much of his time at the five-star InterContinental hotel in Geneva.

No official timetable has been announced for the president’s return from his latest trip abroad, leaving Cameroonians to rely on a succession of conflicting statements from government officials.

The minister of communication, René Emmanuel Sadi, said Biya was in good health and “working from Geneva, where he currently resides”.

“Reports claiming otherwise are pure fantasy and malicious manipulation aimed at destabilising opinion,” he added. Jacques Fame Ndongo, a senior official from the ruling party and the higher education minister, said Biya had been “meticulously following the files submitted to him by his aides … wherever he is”.

The labour minister, Grégoire Owona, gave a different explanation, saying the president was on annual leave and comparing him to regular Cameroonian citizens. “Paul Biya, elected by the Cameroonian people and paid by them, is a worker who has the right to annual leave,” he said. “His employer is obliged to grant it. He informed his employer before leaving and will do the same upon his return.”

Cameroonian authorities banned discussion of Biya’s health in October 2024, during another absence. Nevertheless, local media have published claims in recent weeks that he is critically ill, and jokes about Biya being a work-from-abroad president or a remote-work president have resurfaced on social media.

Mamadou Mota, the vice-president of the opposition Cameroon Renaissance Movement party, said Biya’s latest absence had created a “glaring institutional vacuum”. “A country cannot be governed by remote control while critical socioeconomic challenges go unaddressed,” he said.

Last November, Biya was sworn in for his eighth consecutive seven-year term, a month after a presidential election marred by widespread allegations of irregularities and voter suppression. Although the Constitutional Council dismissed post-electoral complaints by opposition parties, many of them refused to recognise the outcome, arguing that the election had further eroded public confidence in Cameroon’s democratic institutions.

Biya has yet to name a government since being sworn in for his latest term. With parliamentary and municipal elections expected in early 2027, many are worried that the ripple effect of that and his prolonged absence could disrupt the electoral cycle.

Cameroon has the largest economy in central Africa, but unemployment rates, high inflation and poor public infrastructure are stymieing the prospects of its young people, who make up about two-thirds of its estimated population of 30.6 million.

“Politics should be about serving the people, but the [ruling] CPDM [party] appears more interested in holding on to power than addressing the concerns of Cameroonians,” said Kohtem Sambit, the secretary general of the opposition Movement for Patriotism and People’s Prosperity.

“The minister of the economy borrowed more than 21bn [Central African francs] in the name of the Cameroonian people, saying it was approved by Mr Biya,” Sambit told the Guardian. “How do we justify this? You do not see the person who signed, nor do you know his whereabouts. That debt will be paid by the public.”

Referring to Owona’s remarks, Sambit said: “If the president is on annual leave, he is still accountable to the Cameroonian people because he is paid with taxpayers’ money. His whereabouts should therefore be disclosed.”

Another opposition party, the Social Democratic Front, has argued that the issue is not whether the president has a constitutional right to travel, but rather the government’s failure to explain the extension of what had initially been described as a brief private visit. Another opposition leader, Patricia Tomaïno Ndam Njoya, of the Cameroon Democratic Union, has called for an impartial procedure to determine any “temporary or permanent incapacity of the head of state”.

In April, parliament reintroduced the office of vice-president as part of a constitutional overhaul, but the position has yet to be filled, leaving Cameroon without a designated deputy should the president become incapacitated. As Biya’s son and stepson reportedly jockey for position, public disagreements between cabinet ministers have become commonplace.

Last week, the party’s secretary general, Jean Nkuete, convened a rare meeting of senior party officials. The CPDM described the gathering only as an “important working session” and did not release an agenda or further details. Attempts to obtain comment from senior party figures were unsuccessful. Several party officials have declined interview requests, citing personal reasons.

For the businessman Nji Lucas, the president’s prolonged absence has become an economic concern. “I do not have confidence because it is almost as if the country is on autopilot,” he said. “No serious investor wants to commit resources in a country where there is uncertainty over political leadership. There is no trust, and investors require certainty before making long-term decisions.”

Culled from The Guardian

More than 2.9 million people, including about 1.5 million children, still needed access to safe drinking water, sanitation and hygiene services in Cameroon’s Northwest and Southwest regions during the first half of 2026, highlighting the continuing humanitarian impact of the country’s anglophone crisis.

The figures come from UNICEF’s humanitarian situation report for Cameroon, published on July 23. According to the UN agency, communities in the two English-speaking regions continue to face heightened risks related to health, protection and access to basic social services.

Water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) remain among the most pressing challenges. UNICEF attributes the situation to a combination of prolonged insecurity, repeated population displacement, damaged water infrastructure, disease outbreaks and inadequate public facilities. More than 2.9 million people in the Northwest and Southwest, including approximately 1.5 million children, continued to require safe water, sanitation and hygiene services, the agency said.

Women and Girls Bear the Heaviest Burden

Limited access to water has consequences that extend well beyond household supply. According to UNICEF, women and girls are disproportionately affected because they are often responsible for collecting water. Long journeys to water points consume time that could otherwise be spent in school, at work or on income-generating activities.

Those trips also expose women and adolescent girls to greater risks of violence, assault and harassment when they travel through isolated or insecure areas.

Limited sanitation facilities further complicate menstrual hygiene management, contributing to school absenteeism among adolescent girls and reinforcing existing barriers to education.

Schools Continue to Face Major Infrastructure Gaps

Schools across the two regions also lack adequate sanitation infrastructure. UNICEF reported that one in four schools had no sanitation facilities, more than one-third lacked separate latrines for boys and girls, and many facilities remained inaccessible to children with disabilities.

The absence of functioning toilets and water points increases health risks for students and teachers while making schools less welcoming, particularly for girls.

The lack of gender-separated sanitation facilities disproportionately affects adolescent girls, while inaccessible infrastructure excludes many children with disabilities. These shortcomings illustrate how the water and sanitation crisis extends beyond households, undermining education in regions already affected by years of conflict.

Rehabilitation Projects Deliver Local Gains

Despite the challenges, UNICEF and its partners continued implementing water and sanitation projects during the first half of 2026.

In the Southwest region, rehabilitation of the Mile 4 gravity-fed water system in Limbe significantly improved access to safe drinking water for nearby communities. According to UNICEF, the time required to collect water fell from about four hours to roughly 30 minutes.

The reduction gives affected families more than three additional hours each day that can be devoted to education, income-generating activities, household responsibilities or rest. The project demonstrates how restoring water infrastructure can quickly improve living conditions.

Needs Still Far Outpace Assistance

While projects such as the one in Limbe show the benefits of targeted investments, they remain small compared with the scale of unmet needs. UNICEF said restoring water networks, installing secure water points and building sanitation facilities in schools will require sustained funding as well as reliable humanitarian access to conflict-affected communities.

In the most insecure areas, humanitarian teams continue to face difficulties reaching communities and maintaining existing infrastructure. Repeated population displacement also places additional pressure on newly built or rehabilitated facilities.

The Limbe project illustrates the immediate health, education, protection and economic benefits that improved water and sanitation services can provide. At the same time, it underscores the wide gap between progress in individual communities and the needs of millions of people across Cameroon’s Northwest and Southwest regions.

Source: Sbbc