May 30th: The day that French Cameroun secret service officers kill Bishops and dump their bodies in rivers ⁰

Late Bishop Bala’s vehicle was found on the Sanaga Bridge in Ebebda on the 30^th of May 2017. Inside the vehicle, a note with the words “I am in the water” was crafted by the French Cameroun secret service officers who reportedly murdered him. Bishop Bala’s car was a white Toyota Prado that had his personal belongings.

News of the bishop’s mysterious disappearance created total indignation throughout the national territory and within the Roman Catholic Church. The Cameroon Episcopal Conference demanded an independent investigation. Three years after this tragic event, the various judicial investigations opened have come to nothing.

Three days after his disappearance, Bishop Balla’s body was found on 2 June 2017 in the waters of the Sanaga by a Malian fisherman.

Today, May 30, 2020 marks the third anniversary of Cameroon’s “Murder in the Cathedral”. Several months after his death, a press release from the public prosecutor’s office concluded that: “drowning was the most probable cause of the Bishop’s death”.

The position of the Roman Catholic Church as stated by Archbishop Samuel Kleda, President of the National Episcopal Conference remains unchanged- “the bishop of Bafia had simply been murdered.”

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai with files from CIN