The killing of at least eight women in a week has sparked outrage in Cameroon, with many calling on the government to do more to protect women and girls.

Among those who have spoken out is renowned footballer Nchout Njoya Ajara, who has called for an end to the “tragic wave” of targeting women, saying “silence is complicity”.

The government has also raised concern about the rise in attacks. At least 50 women have been killed between January and April this year, compared to 77 last year, according to official figures.

In the latest case on Tuesday, a 44-year-old woman was killed in a hotel room in the capital, Yaoundé. She was allegedly stabbed to death by a 22-year-old who was later arrested.

“Being a woman in Cameroon should never be a risk,” said Ajara, who is one of Cameroon’s greatest female footballers.

The 33-year-old striker has played professionally in Russia, Sweden, Norway, Spain, Italy and Saudi Arabia for clubs including Atlético Madrid and Inter Milan.

“In the face of the tragic wave of femicides that has hit our country in recent days, silence is complicity,” Ajara said.

‘We are the friend’ – inspiring those fleeing terror

In a statement, the opposition Cameroon Renaissance Movement (CRM) party said it was outraged by the “tragic recurrence of domestic femicides” and accused the government of being passive about the issue.

The femicide cases, most of which are attributed to domestic violence, have been reported in different parts of the country.

In a video published by state media, the minister for Women’s Empowerment and the Family, Marie-Thérèse Abena Ondoa, condemned the “worrying” rise in the number of the killings, and said the government was working to address the problem.

She mentioned a bill to protect women against gender-based violence, which she said was being reviewed by the prime minister.

But civil society and women’s rights groups have denounced what they perceive as the government’s delay in turning the bill into law.

A parliamentary session, the last one for the year, is due to be held in November. However, Viviane Tathi, whose organisation documents cases of femicide in the country, told the BBC she was not sure that the bill would be passed at the session.

“We are worried because the November parliamentary session focuses on budgetary debates…So, we don’t know by what magic this bill will be passed,” she said.

She has called for the creation of a special court to handle family disputes, which lead to domestic violence.

According to the latest UN data, Africa had both the highest total number of femicide victims and the highest rate relative to its population in 2024 – with an estimated 22,600 cases.

The numbers are an estimate as some cases of femicide are believed to go unreported and many governments do not consistently record the information.

Culled from BBC

Three individuals have been sentenced in federal court for their roles in a conspiracy to provide material support or resources to kill, kidnap, and maim persons and use weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) in a foreign country. The defendants conspired to provide funds and equipment to separatist fighters in Cameroon to allow them to construct and use IEDs against various targets in the Northwest Region of Cameroon. 

Francis Chenyi, Sr., 52, of Saint Paul, Minn. and Lah Nestor Langmi, 49, of Buffalo, N.Y., both citizens of Cameroon, were sentenced to 180 months each in federal prison, followed by three years of supervised release.

Claude Ngenevu Chi, 43, of Kansas City, Mo., was sentenced to 63 months, followed by three years of supervised release.

Previously, Chenyi and Langmi, both of whom are U.S. citizens of Cameroonian origin, were found guilty after a federal jury trial of one count of a conspiracy to provide material support or resources intended to be used to carry out conspiracies to kill, kidnap, and maim persons in a foreign country and to use a WMD outside the United States. Chenyi and Langmi were also found guilty of one count of being involved in an international money laundering conspiracy that transferred funds from the United States to Cameroon to promote conspiracies to kill, kidnap, and maim and use WMDs abroad. Additionally, Chenyi was convicted of conspiring to provide material support and resources to use a WMD abroad.

Chi previously pleaded guilty to one count of conspiring to provide material support and resources to use WMDs abroad.

According to court documents and evidence from trial, Langmi sent an audio message to separatist fighters requesting they kidnap a traditional leader in Cameroon. Following a battle with Cameroonian forces, separatists took the traditional leader along with the Catholic Cardinal Christian Tumi, who was traveling with the traditional leader, from their vehicles. Following the kidnapping, Chenyi, provided the interrogation questions to be asked of the traditional leader and the Cardinal and approved the transferring of funds through peer-to-peer transactions to the separatist fighters in Cameroon to further the kidnapping.

Chenyi was involved in ransom payments by individuals outside of Cameroon for the release of family members taken in Cameroon and communicated with Langmi about these payments. Multiple instances occurred in which co-conspirators, including Langmi, requested funds to purchase IEDs or components of IEDs for construction and use in Cameroon that were approved and funded by Chenyi. Chenyi also coordinated with individuals in Cameroon to ensure separatist fighters he supported obtained training on IED use. The defendants corresponded with co-conspirators in Cameroon to coordinate development, payment for, and logistical support toward IED use upon targets in Cameroon.

Around Dec. 3, 2020, Chenyi was requested to provide funds for construction of multiple IEDs to be used in connection with efforts to enforce a lockdown of an area before an upcoming election. Chenyi, along with Chi, agreed to provide funds for the IEDs’ construction and Chenyi coordinated the transfer of funds from the United States through peer-to-peer transactions to the separatist fighters in Cameroon.

Langmi coordinated with, and provided funds to, an unindicted co-conspirator to develop IEDs and rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs) in Cameroon and kept Chenyi apprised of the IED and RPG development.  Langmi also attempted to coordinate attacks near the 2021 African Cup of Nations soccer tournament hosted in Cameroon, as well as various cities throughout the Northwest Region in the spring of 2022.

This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Sean T. Foley and Joseph M. Marquez for the Western District of Missouri, with the assistance of the Justice Department’s National Security Division. The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation-Kansas City Field Office.

Cameroon has stepped up road safety checks and prevention measures on major highways, but deadly crashes continue to expose the limits of enforcement efforts aimed at reducing fatalities over the long term.

The latest accident occurred Sunday, Aug. 23, in Sikoum, between Douala and Edéa, killing seven people and injuring 10, according to an official toll reported by state-owned newspaper Cameroon Tribune. The crash came in the middle of a special nationwide road safety campaign and has renewed questions about how effectively current measures can address persistent risks on the country’s roads.

The accident occurred in the morning on National Road No. 3, or RN3, the main highway linking Yaoundé and Douala. A passenger bus carrying residents of the same Douala neighborhood was returning from Bafia via Yaoundé after they attended a funeral when it collided head-on with a dump truck, according to the state-owned newspaper.

Esther Ngo Yemba, the Transport Ministry’s divisional delegate for Sanaga-Maritime, said preliminary information indicated that the bus driver may have fallen asleep at the wheel. The vehicle then reportedly drifted out of its lane and struck the oncoming truck.

All 17 people killed or injured were aboard the bus. Transport Minister Jean-Ernest Masséna Ngalle Bibehe traveled to Edéa after the accident and visited the injured at the city’s regional annex hospital.

A Road Safety Campaign Already Stepped Up

The Sikoum crash occurred during a special road safety and prevention campaign that began June 25 and is scheduled to run through Sept. 30. The nationwide operation is intended in part to reduce accidents during the vacation period and ahead of the start of the school year.

Authorities have recently intensified enforcement on some of the most exposed routes. At the campaign’s halfway point, the Transport Ministry reported 35 accidents on certain highways since June 1 that it attributed to dangerous parking or improper use of vehicles carrying general and hazardous goods.

In response, Ngalle Bibehe ordered a special operation to remove improperly parked vehicles from major highways in a statement signed Aug. 14. RN3, which connects Cameroon’s two largest cities, is among the main roads covered by the operation.

On Aug. 20, the fourth day of the operation between Yaoundé and Douala, ministry teams identified several cases of illegal parking despite earlier awareness campaigns. For the ministry, the objective is not simply to remove vehicles that violate parking rules but to prevent them from creating conditions that could lead to collisions.

The Sikoum accident also came just days after another deadly crash highlighted a different road safety risk. During the night of Aug. 13-14 in Nomalé, in the Ndikinimeki district, 16 people were killed and about 40 injured when a passenger bus collided with a truck loaded with planks that was stopped on the roadway, according to the official toll.

At Nomalé, the stationary truck was one of the key factors in the accident. At Sikoum, preliminary information instead points to suspected driver fatigue.

The Challenge of Lasting Behavioral Change

The two crashes illustrate the range of risks facing road users. Dangerous parking is one threat, but it forms part of a broader chain that includes driver fatigue, behavior behind the wheel, vehicle condition, compliance with transport rules and traffic conditions.

That complexity is one of the central challenges for Cameroon’s current road safety policy. Authorities have increased checks, removed improperly parked vehicles and continued awareness campaigns, yet some high-risk behavior persists.

RN3 illustrates the problem. Even with the Transport Ministry concentrating part of its enforcement efforts on the highway, serious accidents continue to claim lives. The question is therefore no longer simply whether controls exist, but whether they can produce lasting changes in behavior.

The issue is particularly relevant because the government says the current campaign has coincided with a decline in road deaths. While that would indicate an overall improvement, it has not eliminated mass-casualty crashes.

The Nomalé and Sikoum accidents alone killed 23 people in less than two weeks and injured dozens more. That does not invalidate the broader decline in fatalities reported by authorities, but it shows that lower overall road deaths have not eliminated high-risk situations. Some routes remain particularly exposed, while dangerous behavior continues to have deadly consequences.

With the new school year approaching, the special road safety campaign is entering a critical phase. Authorities still have several weeks to turn individual enforcement operations into measures that address the underlying causes of crashes.

The challenge for the government is to ensure that stronger enforcement produces a sustained reduction in serious accidents rather than a cycle of temporary operations followed by the return of the same dangerous practices.

Source: Sbbc

Seven people were killed and 10 others injured Sunday when an intercity bus collided head-on with a truck in Cameroon, officials said.

The crash occurred in Sikoum in the Sanaga-Maritime division of the Littoral region, where the commercial capital Douala is located. The bus was carrying residents from the same neighborhood in Douala who were returning from a funeral, said Esther Ngo Yemba, Sanaga-Maritime divisional delegate for transport.

State media Cameroon Tribune reported that the bus driver fell asleep at the wheel, causing the vehicle to veer into the opposite lane and crash into the oncoming truck.

The crash comes just days after 16 people were killed and 40 others injured in a separate accident on the Yaounde-Bafoussam highway.

Deadly road accidents are frequent in Cameroon, often linked to poor road conditions and reckless driving. Ministry of Transport data shows that around 1,500 people die in road accidents in the country each year.

Source: Xinhuanet

Paul Biya returned to Cameroon on August 20, 2026, after more than 10 weeks abroad. His absence had fueled speculation about his health and raised questions about how the government functioned while he was away.

The president, accompanied by Chantal Biya, landed at Yaoundé-Nsimalen International Airport at about 4:45 p.m. before heading to the Unity Palace.

Biya left Yaoundé on June 7. The presidency said at the time that he was leaving for a “short private stay in Europe,” without specifying how long he would be away. In total, Biya spent about 74 days outside the country, his longest recorded stay abroad since taking office in 1982, according to Reuters.

His return ends an unusually long absence. For more than two months, the president’s absence from public view and limited official communication about his stay fueled rumors and questions, eventually prompting the government to respond publicly. Speaking to RFI on August 2, Communication Minister and government spokesman René Emmanuel Sadi said the president was alive and that the presidency was not vacant. He also said Biya would return soon, without giving a date.

At the same time, the presidential camp maintained that Biya continued carrying out his presidential duties while abroad. Several presidential acts were issued during the period, including appointments within the defense forces on August 3.

Biya’s Absence Raises Questions About the Vice Presidency

The episode also exposed a new difficulty in Cameroon’s institutional framework. The constitutional revision of April 14, 2026, created the office of vice president and changed the rules governing presidential succession and continuity of government. Yet more than four months after the reform, no one had been appointed to the position when Biya returned to Yaoundé. Several political parties responded to the situation.

On July 18, the Cameroon Democratic Union (CDU), led by Hermine Patricia Tomaino Ndam Njoya, called for the vice presidency to be filled and for prolonged presidential absences to be more clearly regulated. The party also called for the public to receive more regular information about the functioning of state institutions when a president remains outside the country for an extended period.

The CDU did not argue, however, that Biya’s absence meant the presidency was legally vacant. Instead, the party questioned how the new institutional framework could operate in practice while one of its key offices remained vacant.

Samuel Hiram Iyodi’s Patriotic Movement for the Prosperity of the People (MP3) went further. In a letter sent to the president of the National Assembly on August 6, the party called for a debate on the legal framework governing prolonged presidential stays abroad. It proposed, among other measures, clarifying information requirements and the institutional mechanisms that could be activated when an absence extends over a long period.

Biya’s Return Ends the Absence, Not the Institutional Debate

The political debate is separate from the legal question of whether the presidency is vacant. Cameroonian law does not treat a president’s prolonged stay abroad as creating a vacancy merely because of how long it lasts. The April reform notably sets out provisions governing permanent incapacity and gives the vice president a central role in presidential succession and continuity of government. Biya’s return removes the immediate source of the controversy, but the institutional questions raised during his absence remain.

The episode highlighted the gap between the president’s legal ability to exercise his powers from abroad and public expectations about how the presidency should function during a prolonged absence with limited official communication.

It also brought the office of vice president back to the center of the debate. Although the April reform gave the vice presidency a key role in the new constitutional framework, no appointment has yet been made. Biya’s return therefore ends his 74-day absence, but not necessarily the institutional debate that began on June 7.

Source: Sbbc

Cameroon’s demographics make youth central to the country’s economic development.  Citizens aged 18-35 constitute 57% of the country’s labour force (World Bank, 2025a). But the economy has struggled – and failed – to absorb the growing number of labour-market entrants, and many youth continue to face unemployment, underemployment, or vulnerable informal employment (World Bank, 2025a; Hyéfouais, 2019). 

Despite employment and entrepreneurship initiatives implemented by the government and development partners (World Bank, 2025a), almost one in four young Cameroonians (23.2%) are not in education, employment, or training, according to 2021 estimates (World Bank, 2025b).

As Tangko (2020) notes, youth unemployment contributes to economic marginalisation and  increases the risk of political instability as exclusion generates frustration, weakens confidence in institutions, and heightens social tensions. Cameroon’s “low” ranking in the 2023 Global Youth Development Index highlights persistent challenges for youth across a wide range of sectors, from education and employment to well-being and civic participation (Commonwealth, 2023).

Findings from the Afrobarometer Round 10 survey (2024) reinforce these concerns. While Cameroonian youth are more educated than older generations, they are also more likely to be unemployed. Young people identify inadequate training, skills mismatch, and a lack of experience as major barriers to employment. Job creation is their top priority for additional government spending to support young people, and unemployment ranks among the most important problems they want the government to address.

Young citizens see the government as largely failing to address their top concerns. Most see the country as heading in the wrong direction, and few express optimism about the near future.

Against this backdrop, a growing majority of young Cameroonians report considering emigration, primarily in search of better economic prospects.

Culled afrobarometer