History was made in Ntenako, a village some few kilometers from Mamfe the chief town in Manyu recently as the indigenes united in one accord and crowned Ma Nchong Stella  daughter of late Eyambe Besong Meshack Enow as their new Ekandim Nkanda.

The event was reportedly a unity day for the people of Ntenako village as the Ekandim Nkanda title represents a special quality in the hearts of every Manyu woman of substance.

Ntenako village noted for heavy fines when things go radically wrong reached a unanimous decision that the Germany based Lady Nchong Stella had contributed positively towards the development of Boh Manyi quarter and she is working hard for a unified Ntenako diaspora at a time when nearly every Manyu group is facing internal squabbles, leadership tussle, non-transparency and accountability.

The Ma Nchong Stella celebration in Ntenako featured a well performed cultural dance that was watched by the regent chief Sessekou Besongngem Ferdinand and a prominent notable Sessekou Arrey Walter.

There was a fraternity of family meetings, cultural music dances and the ultimate coronation of Ma Nchong Stella as the Ekandim Nkanda of Ntenako.

Lady Nchong Stella is presently the Cultural Affairs Officer for the Manyu Women International Association-Nyene Mawn Worldwide

By Kingsley Betek with additional reporting from Soter Agbaw-Ebai

 In 2024, Cameroon’s public treasury spent a total of CFA1.38 trillion repaying central government debt. According to the national sinking fund (CAA), the agency managing the country’s public debt, CFA311.4 billion of this amount was used to cover interest payments, including CFA58.8 billion for domestic debt.

Although the CAA highlights that Cameroon benefits from “favorable borrowing conditions,” with an average debt cost of 3.2% at the end of 2024, interest expenses continue to weigh on public finances, limiting funds available for development projects.

To put this in perspective, the interest payments made in 2024 were 2.5 times higher than the CFA126.4 billion the government expects to raise in 2025 through the new local taxation law to fund municipalities. They also represent nearly a quarter of the CFA1.14 trillion the African Development Bank (AfDB) has invested in Cameroon’s transport infrastructure. Additionally, this amount is almost double the CFA164 billion in private-sector investments claimed by the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a World Bank subsidiary. The IFC plans to expand its investment portfolio in Cameroon to CFA300 billion over the next three years, which is still CFA11 billion less than what the government paid in interest alone in 2024.

The growing interest burden on Cameroon’s central government debt is largely due to the country’s increased reliance on non-concessional loans in recent years. In 2024, only 35.9% of new financial commitments were concessional loans, while 64.1% came from non-concessional sources, according to the CAA.

Non-concessional loans, which often consist of commercial debt, include borrowing from financial markets and private institutions that typically charge higher interest rates. While these loans provide more flexibility in securing funds, they also come at a higher cost. This makes strict financial management essential to limit interest expenses and ensure long-term budget stability, the CAA warns.

Source: Business in Cameroon

The Advocate General of the Chamber of Accounts of the Supreme Court requested on Thursday that financial penalties and disqualifications be imposed on four officials from the Ministry of Public Health implicated in mismanagement related to a public contract for the COVID-19 response in 2020, during today’s hearing.

Public prosecutor Félix Owona Etoundi, representing the state, called for a fine of 2 million CFA francs each against Élysée Amour II Eyenga Ndjomo, Technical Advisor No. 1 at the Ministry of Public Health; Ousmane Diaby, Head of the Studies and Projects Division within the same ministry; Rémy Bekolo Edou, Logistics Accountant at the minister’s office; and Abiba Ntue Ngapout, Paymaster at the specialized Treasury office attached to the Ministry of Public Health.

The Advocate General also requested “a five-year ban for the individuals from holding any role involving authorizing or managing funds in a public or semi-public body, or in a state-owned enterprise,” as well as “a ban from holding any position of responsibility in the public administration.” If the judges follow the prosecution’s recommendations, the accused would effectively lose their civil servant status for a decade.

To justify these sanctions, the prosecution cited no fewer than five acts of mismanagement. The first was the lack of qualification of the members of the commission tasked with receiving the 278 million CFA franc contract for the construction of an isolation center at Ngaoundéré Regional Hospital in 2020. This commission included the late former Secretary of State Alim Hayatou, Élysée Amour II Eyenga Ndjomo, Ousmane Diaby, Rémy Bekolo Edou, and the CEO of Grand Lux, the contractor. As the Advocate General reminded the court, some of the accused admitted they lacked the necessary qualifications to serve on the commission.

During the hearing, Élysée Amour II Eyenga Ndjomo stated that “strictly speaking, they should not have sat on this commission,” while Ousmane Diaby declared that “aside from myself and the delegated project owner, the late Alim Hayatou, the other members of the commission were not competent to sign a work acceptance report.” Rémy Bekolo Edou concurred, stating that “the commission should have changed the format of this report, because it was not, in principle, authorized to accept construction work.”

The second act of mismanagement, according to the prosecution, concerns the commission validating the reception of construction work instead of “goods, items, and materials,” as specified in the acceptance report.

The third alleged mismanagement involves an advance payment on the work set at 40%, whereas the public procurement code limits this type of advance to 20%.

The fourth act of mismanagement relates to the failure to pay the full guarantee deposit before issuing a start-up advance. Instead, the contractor Grand Lux paid the guarantee only eight months later.

Finally, the fifth act involves accountant Abiba Ntue Ngapout, accused of fully paying a purchase order of 111 million CFA francs before any services had been rendered.

For all these charges, the Advocate General called for “exemplary sanctions” because the judges’ decision is “highly anticipated.”

Following the defense pleadings presented by the two lawyers representing the accused—who rejected all charges brought by the prosecution—the panel of judges adjourned its decision until April 17.

Source: Sbbc

Chronic embezzlement, abetting assassinations and intimidations are the currencies of tyrants. Michael Mbi Oruh, the traditional ruler of Mkpot village in Manyu Division has gained prominence in demonstrating that supporting extrajudicial killings, hijacking communal farms and embezzling funds intended to stimulate employment in his village are fundamentally his persona.

Cameroon Concord News is on the verge of completing an 18-month investigation into one of the nastiest and most inhumane killers in Cameroon. Our meticulous investigation, which spans 12 years, covers three continents (Africa, Europe, and North America). Over the coming weeks, this publication will lay bare the vicious criminal empire the so-called Chief Michael Mbi Oruh rules over. Our findings are jaw-dropping, shocking, and profound.

We have uncovered a bandit who used his position as technical adviser in Cameroon’s Ministry of Industries, Mines and Technological Development to apply for and obtain part of four million six hundred and fifty-six thousand forty US dollars (USD 4,656,040) total cost of a project with the title, improving income generating potential of Oil Palm in Nigeria and Cameroon—CFC/FIGOOF/28. The project was jointly facilitated, sponsored and overseen by the Common Fund for Commodities (CFC), the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), and the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO).

Cameroon Concord News Kingsley Betek uncovered a scheme where Chief Oruh swindled donation money meant for the building of a health centre in a region where the average person lives on less than $1 a day.

In one of our publications in 2020, we raised concern that Chief Michael Mbi Oruh with the aid of Egbe John Besong, Orock Thomas Nchung, and Otang Ivo Enow supported the execution of a series of extrajudicial killings and other crimes against humanity in Mkpot Village.

Our chief correspondent in Mamfe now has ample, authentic and critical audio, text, and other forms of recorded evidence linking Chief Michael Mbi Oruh and his crime syndicate to these gross human rights violations and heinous crimes. The recent revelation is Chief Michael Mbi Oruh’s failed harsh ploy to assassinate Sesekou Dr Mbu Phillip Eno and Sesekou Otang Wilfred Obi aka NseMgbe.

In Nigeria, where Michael Mbi Oruh lived as a young man, he has been told never to come back! And in the USA where he claimed to have undertaken some university education, Manyu citizens have openly questioned his professed academic qualifications and have often painted a picture of a loner with a disturbing mind.

In this first of four articles, we intend to highlight the Mkpot Oil Mill scandal in which Chief Michael Mbi Oruh siphoned and misappropriated CFA Francs 750,000,000 (over one million dollars) grant, as part of the USD 4,656,040, allocated for the construction of an Oil Mill in Mkpot, as a palm oil processing centre intended to accommodate and enhance the production capacity of farmers under Central Ejagham Palm Oil Producers’ Union (CEPOPU). The remainder of the total funds (USD 4,656,040) intended to improve the income-generating potential of the oil palm in West and Central African regions (Cameroon and Nigeria) was allocated to Teze/Ngie, Sombo (Cameroon) and AkwaIbom State (Nigeria).

Cameroon is a major palm oil producer in Central Africa but according to reliable estimates, the country still imports about 60,000 tons annually to meet domestic demand. To address this shortfall, this project that was jointly sponsored by CFC and UNIDO, over a decade ago, was intended to support a sector characterized by obsolete production equipment and little access to technology and financing. The project’s objective was to establish and equip four medium-scale palm oil processing centres in Cameroon and one in Nigeria. The processing capacity of the mills was established to be 2 tons per hour and one of the sites selected for this was Mkpot village in Manyu Division, Southwest Region, Cameroon. This particular project was overseen by Chief Michael Mbi Oruh, the then technical adviser in Cameroon’s Ministry of Industries, Mines and Technological Development and the supposed chief of the village. Chief Michael Mbi Oruh told Voice of America in an interview on the 1st of November 2009 that “the goal of the project was to help the country use palm oil to generate income…” Kingsley Betek says this project was a con from Mbi Oruh who is somehow addicted to fiddles.

In applying for the grant, Michael Mbi Oruh told UNIDO that the money was to train “farmers in new and more efficient ways of processing palm oil and also to buy planting material and equipment.” Astonishingly, the good people at UNIDO provided what he asked for. However, very little happened on the ground in Mkpot village!

Our reporters were shown a dilapidated building, posturing as an Oil Mill, which Michael Mbi Oruh built for less than 5% of the millions he received from CFC and UNIDO.

According to the grant documents seen by Cameroon Concord News reporters, and the CFC 2016 and 2018 Annual Report, the mill in Mkpot had to create over 250 new jobs and improve household incomes in the Manyu local area, especially Eyumojock. Over the last few years, Michael Mbi Oru has been blaming the current crisis in the Southwest and Northwest regions for the lack of productivity in the oil mill but his subjects told Cameroon Concord News reporters that the mill never actually got off the ground. One of the villagers who spoke on grounds of anonymity said “Mbi Oruh built this sub-standard building here to take pictures and justify to his superiors in Yaoundé that the project was genuine, it was just a scam all along”. According to some disturbing facsimile of documents, Chief Mbi Oruh lured Minister Victor Arrey Mengot into the scam by selling the minister shares in the project.

The disgusting structure built in Mkpot village to pass for an oil mill is certainly not a 700 Million FCFA building. Correspondingly, our reporters were taken to a beautiful house that Michael Mbi Oruh had constructed in Mkpot for himself during the oil mill project. There is enormous evidence that his houses in Yaoundé and Limbe were built or restructured and modified from the proceeds of this oil mill theft.

According to his family members, the people of Mkpot fought bitterly against their brothers in Bakwelle for the land they acquired to cultivate a communal palm plantation for the village, which has now been hijacked by Michael Mbi Oruh as his private estate.  A source in the US hinted Cameroon Concord News  that Peter Nayongho, the man who supplied the land for the building of the mill was given a 2,500,000frs CFA hut, not the 25,000,000 frs CFA that Mbi Oruh promised him as compensation.

The people of Manyu Division must be prepared to pick up the pieces as they deal with the reality of a chief in a never-ending sequence of mischief and sinfulness.

Cameroon Concord News has contacted CFC through its headquarters in Amsterdam, Netherlands for further details on project execution and closure report including safeguards that were put in place to monitor and deter such outrageous embezzlements with impunity.

Cameroon Concord News will also begin a campaign of alerting multi-national and multi-partnership agencies to track and hold Michael Mbi Oruh accountable for serious rights violations and financial crimes.

There seems to be a majority now in Mkpot village determined that he will be the first Manyu chief in over 130 years to be deposed by his people. Though he has further descended into intimidating progressive voices by inviting them to police and military interrogations, there is growing anxiety among many in Mkpot that gentleness is a strategy that won’t work with this corrupt leader.

As Michael Mbi Oruh prepares to end up on the scrapheap of history as a disgraced and deposed chief, it won’t be because of the people of Mkpot, it will be because, in the end, he, Michael Mbi Oruh was his own biggest problem.

By Kinsley Betek and Rita Akana with additional editing from Soter Agbaw-Ebai

The Ministry of Defense (Mindef) suspects a “clear” alliance between powerful transnational criminal organizations and terrorist groups operating in and around the Lake Chad Basin, according to a statement released on Wednesday. Mindef acknowledged that this alliance is responsible for the recent increase in terrorist activity in the region. The statement noted that “credible” intelligence gathered on the ground confirms the existence of such a partnership.

Security officials also observed that these terrorist groups in the Lake Chad Basin have leveraged their collusion with the implicated criminal enterprises to enhance their weaponry. The recent attack in Wulgo, which occurred overnight from March 24 to 25 and has been attributed to Boko Haram, demonstrated this development. During the assault, Boko Haram fighters reportedly used  kamikaze drones, as revealed by a military officer cited by SBBC. “Something never seen before,” the same source stated.

Mindef further stated that Boko Haram attackers also employed several light tactical vehicles. The statement also highlighted that the terrorists were heavily armed. This display suggests that Boko Haram is seeking to rebuild its capacity for violence.

On February 13, the Peace and Security Council (PSC) of the African Union (AU) noted a decline in the military capabilities of Boko Haram—the primary terrorist group in the Lake Chad Basin—while renewing the mandate of the Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJTF). The PSC communiqué emphasized “the continued surrender of Boko Haram fighters and their families,” underscoring the group’s diminishing influence.

Following the Wulgo attack, which took place near the Cameroon-Nigeria border, Mindef reported that 12 Cameroonian soldiers were killed, approximately a dozen were wounded, and several terrorists were neutralized. Search operations have since been initiated to track the retreating terrorists along their escape routes.

Source: Sbbc

Boko Haram fighters disguised as herders killed at least 20 Cameroonian troops in a Tuesday morning raid on the Nigerian border town of Wulgo, local security sources and residents told AFP.

Cameroonian troops are commonly stationed across the border in Nigeria as part of anti-jihadist operations around Wulgo, which is near the volatile Lake Chad — home to both Islamic State and Boko Haram fighters.

The militants had disguised themselves as herders and traders in a nearby city and then infiltrated Wulgo to attack its surrounding military positions, said two intelligence sources.

The sources were assisting troops in the long-running fight against the militants and requested anonymity to speak freely.

“The insurgents attacked the bases around 1:00 am and fighting continued for two hours before they subdued the troops and burnt the bases, after taking away heavy weapons,” one of the sources said.

“Twenty Cameroonian troops were killed in the fighting and their bodies were transported across the border into Cameroon this morning,” the source added.

Neither the Nigerian military nor the Cameroonian side responded to an AFP request for comment.

Soviet-made Shilka guns — lightly armoured, radar-guided anti-aircraft weapons — were among the cache seized by the Boko Haram fighters, said the second source, who offered the same death toll.

On Monday, the fighters had blended among herders at the weekly market in the town of Gamboru, a commercial hub 15 kilometres (nine miles) away, the sources said.

They then moved into Wulgo under the cover of night to launch a “surprise attack”, said the second security source.

– Military bases raided –

Sounds of heavy guns and explosions were heard by people in Gamboru who had been awake to observe Ramadan vigils, local resident Muhammad Sani Umar told AFP.

“I saw three Cameroonian military trucks conveying 13 bodies across the border into Cameroon this morning,” said Umar, who visited Wulgo on Tuesday.

The attacked military bases were a mess, with the building torched and vehicles burnt, Umar said.

Since 2009, jihadist violence in northeast Nigeria has killed 40,000 people and displaced 2.3 million, according to the UN, with the conflict spilling into neighbouring countries.

The Lake Chad region in particular — stretching across Nigeria, Niger, Chad and Cameroon — has become a jihadist stronghold, disrupting fishing, farming and herding, on which the 40 million people who live there depend.

Recently, however, officials have complained about a lack of coordination in the multi-country coalition fighting militants in the region, particularly as Nigeria and Niger have seen relations deteriorate after a coup toppled Niamey’s civilian government in 2023.

Since losing its Sambisa stronghold in Nigeria in 2021 to the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), a rival offshoot, Boko Haram has shifted its presence to areas around Lake Chad as well as Wulgo, Waza, Gwoza, Pulka the Mandara mountains on the border with Cameroon.

Wulgo and Waza have been repeatedly targeted by Boko Haram, who have kidnapped and killed loggers, herders and scrap metal scavengers they accuse of spying on them for the military or local militias.

Earlier this year, clashes with Boko Haram jihadists near the Lake Chad town of Baga left nine Nigerian soldiers dead.

The attack came days after ISWAP militants killed scores of farmers in nearby in Tumbun Kanta and Kwatar Yobe, with accounts ranging between 40 and 100 dead.

In March 2021, two Cameroonian soldiers were killed in a Boko Haram attack in Wulgo, with three other Cameroonian troops and a Nigerian soldier injured.

Source: AFP

More than 10 Cameroonian soldiers were killed and 20 others injured after the terrorist group Boko Haram raided a military outpost in the country’s Far North Region, according to local and security sources.

The attack took place overnight into Tuesday.

Boko Haram militants ambushed and attacked the Wulgo military camp located at the border with Nigeria, an army official in the region told the Chinese News Agency by phone on Tuesday.

“The terrorists came from Nigeria in large numbers and took our brave soldiers by surprise. They were well-armed with sophisticated weapons and technology. Our brave soldiers are pursuing them,” said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Local officials said the death toll could be higher as they were still investigating.

It is one of the deadliest attacks on the Cameroonian army since Boko Haram started operating in the region in 2014, according to local media.

Source: Xinhuanet

More than one million people were displaced in Cameroon in 2024, according to a report published in early March by the Norwegian Refugee Council.

The report identified 453,662 displaced people in the Far North region, 583,113 in the Northwest and Southwest regions, and 281,488 refugees from the Central African Republic in the East.

“Although there was no major change in the political situation in Cameroon in 2024, the Far North, Northwest, and Southwest regions remained plagued by persistent armed violence, with significant incidents primarily affecting civilians as well as humanitarian operations,” the Norwegian Refugee Council said in the report.

The Far North region has faced incursions by Boko Haram fighters from Nigeria since 2014, affecting the Mayo-Tsanaga, Mayo-Sava, and Logone-et-Chari departments. The region is also home to the Minawao refugee camp, the country’s largest, hosting nearly 70,000 refugees. Armed separatist groups have conducted attacks in the Northwest and Southwest regions since 2017.

The Norwegian Refugee Council report cited additional factors contributing to the high displacement numbers, including “the increase in fuel prices, accompanied by a rise in the cost of basic goods and services, which has had a significant impact on already vulnerable communities, limiting access to essential goods and services for displaced people, particularly women and children.”

The Norwegian Refugee Council’s 2024 budget in Cameroon totaled nearly 7 billion CFA francs, with approximately 22% provided by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Source: Sbbc