A leading Cameroonian priest has warned that the country is “dangerously dancing toward self-destruction,” blasting a series of corruption scandals and acts of violence that have marred the west African nation.

“These are very uncomfortable atrocities that have happened in our midst, and which sometimes, we rather tacitly” accept them through silence, said Father Humphrey Tatah Mbuy, Director of Communications at the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Cameroon.

In one of his weekly programs, “Faith Seeking Understanding,” broadcast this week, Mbuy catalogued several incidents that have rocked Cameroon of late.

He began with the murder of journalist Martinez Zogo, who was kidnapped January 17, and whose mutilated body was found near the capital Yaoundé five days later. Zogo was a constant voice of criticism against government corruption.

Mbuy also discussed scandals surrounding the construction of a Yaoundé-Douala motorway. The first 60 kilometers of the highway have now cost in excess of $1 billion, with much of that amount believed to have been stolen by corrupt officials.

COVID-19 funds that were also allegedly stolen, Mbuy mentioned. Several government officials, including the Prime Minister Joseph Ngute, have been questioned about the theft of about $300 million allocated for the fight against COVID, but so far, no one has been arrested in connection with the investigation.

The same goes with the theft of funds allocated for the construction of sports stadiums in the country. Recently, another corruption scandal was unraveled at the country’s finance ministry in which a cluster of private individuals and government entities had benefited from ‘miscellaneous expenses’ contained in line items in the state budget to the tune of about $9 billion between 2010 and 2021.

Mbuy lauded the oldest Member of Cameroon’s National Assembly, Koa Mfegue Laurentine Mbede, who recently warned that “all this must stop, or our beautiful and dear fatherland will be transformed into a land of scandals.”

“Perhaps the honorable lady was truly referring to the shock and feelings of betrayal suffered by those who are surprised and disgusted to learn of the complicity of their leaders in wrong-doing,” the priest said.

A nation of roughly 30 million, Cameroon is roughly half Christian, with Catholics making up the largest single religious group in the country.

Mbuy said it’s critical for Cameroonians to speak out in the face of scandal and corruption, because “One who keeps quiet instead of unveiling evil that is going on consents to such evil.”

He said although God fashioned man in his image, he also respects man’s freedom to freely choose between good and evil, and this could partly explain the preponderance of scandals in society today.

“Each and every baptized Christian is called upon to evangelize and bring the good news to the poor, the lame, and the blind, to bring liberty to captives and to set the down-trodden free,” Mbuy said.

“The Church, as a teacher, is called to investigate, to find out, to teach and to defend the truth. The Church can never at any time stand on what is evil.”

Mbuy said the need to build a moral society void of scandals arises out of the theological definition of scandal as “moral outrage.”

In other words, “a word or an action which leads to the spiritual ruin of another person…The problem with scandal is not with the person committing even the scandal, it’s already bad enough that he commits. The problem with scandal is that it induces others to sin. It is because of others that scandals become worrisome,” Mbuy said.

He called on Church leaders to be the moral compass of society, and notwithstanding their human weaknesses, “there is a certain amount of discretion that each church leader must possess and which society has a right to expect from each of them. The same applies to those in public service, called to be servants of the people in their administration and political choices.”

He said a few moral principles are necessary to handle the many scandals in Cameroonian society today.

“First, public scandals must be handled and resolved publicly, while private scandals are to be handled privately. Second, there is absolute necessity to make amends, repair or restitution in cases of public scandals. Third, public scandals deserve sanctions to act as deterrents so that others may not follow the bad example. Since a scandal is a moral poisoning of the society, each deserves to be handled with absolute cold headedness and skill, ensuring that the impression is not given that we condone evil. Evil is to be fought at all costs and with the utmost ferociousness.”

Mbuy expressed regret that society has been besieged by “such a nauseating secularism and Marxist materialism that we tend to act with shocking levity of mind over issues which would otherwise frighten anyone with a disciplined mind.”

“If our society is dangerously dancing towards self-destruction, part of the central reason lies in our insensitivity towards what is wrong and inadmissible,” he said.

“For people who still think about the future and those coming after, there is every reason to continue to stand on the side of good against evil, upholding integrity, rather than give in to licentiousness, but apparently, the beautiful ones are not yet born, or the gods must be crazy,” he said.

Culled from Crux

May 13, 2023, Feast of Our Lady of Fatima, was truly a historic day in the life of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston, USA, as His Eminence, Sean Patrick Cardinal O’Malley, OFM Cap., ordained the first Cameroonian in the person of the Rev. John Tanyi, as transitional deacon for the Archdiocese of Boston. In his homily at the Holy Cathedral of Boston that was filled to capacity especially by the Cameroonian crowd from all over Massachusetts and beyond that came to witness one of their own become a Catholic clergyman, Cardinal Sean paid glowing tribute to the Church in Africa as the most vibrant and growing part of the global Church. Rev. Tanyi’s mother, Mama Angela Bikele Tanyi, had travelled from Tiko, Cameroon, to be present for this history-making event. Other family members likewise travelled from Cameroon, Europe, Canada and other parts of the US, to be present.

Rev. John Tanyi, the Cardinal said, is an embodiment of the vibrant presence of African Catholics in the Archdiocese of Boston. The congregation burst into a sustained applause when the Cardinal reference the vibrant Church in Africa. It was a very moving scene when Rev. Tanyi knelt before Cardinal O’Malley and placing his hands in the hands of the Cardinal, promised obedience to him and his successors. This was preceded by Rev. Tanyi lying prostrate on the Cathedral floor, during which the saints of God, including St. John Paul II and the Uganda Martyrs – both dear to Rev. Tanyi, were invoked to come to the aid of Rev. Tanyi and the others being ordained. Another very moving sight for the Cameroonians present was witnessing Fr. Maurice Agbaw-Ebai vesting Rev. John Tanyi in the vestments of the deacon.

The ordination ceremony was followed by a Thanksgiving Mass and Reception that same Saturday evening at the Ste Anne Parish, Salem MA. Rev. John Tanyi delivered his First Homily as a Deacon at the Mass, in which he paid tribute to his family as his first house of formation. His has been a long road to the priesthood. In Rev. Tanyi’s own words:

“I was born into a large family in the small coastal town of Tiko in Anglophone Cameroon, Central Africa. I was raised in a traditional Catholic family, as my parents were devout Catholics. Papa was a headmaster in Catholic schools for close to fifty years. Mama was a laboratory technician. Attending Mass daily was a given. Mama woke us up at 5am for morning devotion. We would then walk forty-five minutes, praying the rosary, in the wee hours of the morning for Mass. We prayed together before going to bed and mama never got tired of her mantra, “A family that prays together stays together.”

 My family was my first seminary since the values and virtues I uphold today originated from that domestic Church. My early attraction to the priesthood stemmed from seeing priests in white and black cassocks in the parish and at school. Mama said at the age of seven, I said to her “One day you will call me Rev. John Tanyi.” Even though we weren’t rich, my parents made tremendous sacrifices to send me to St. Joseph’s College Sasse, one of the elite schools in Anglophone Cameroon, established by the Mill Hill Missionary Society in 1939.

In 2002, I joined the Mill Hill Missionary Society for formation to the missionary priesthood. After a year of basic formation in Cameroon, I was sent to Uganda for philosophical studies in 2003. In 2006, I graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy from Uganda Martyrs University, Nkozi. After first cycle formation, I was sent to the coastal region of Kenya for a two-year Missionary Experience Program (MEP). I left the Mill Hill Missionary Society upon completion of the MEP in 2008. After years of studies, I taught politics, international relations, and peace studies at the Catholic University of Eastern Africa and Mount Kenya University, Nairobi (2013-2018). The academic interactions I had with students are priceless. For my sabbatical in 2018, I enrolled for a Master of Arts in Theology and Ministry in Boston College, USA. I graduated with an MA in Theology and Ministry in 2020.

For the last fifteen years, I have been writing and talking about the faith of the Catholic Church. I thought I would serve God through my writings and teaching. But God works in mysterious and strange ways. Since childhood, my desire of becoming a priest has never been quenched. In February 2020, I attended a vocation retreat at Pope Saint John XXIII Seminary. I was touched by Cardinal Seán O’Malley’s perceptive remark that Jesus Christ called second career men for apostles. It was at that point that I decided to return to the seminary. I was admitted into the seminary in 2020 for the Archdiocese of Boston. It wasn’t an entirely easy decision considering the fruitful time I had as a university lecturer.

It has been a wonderful time of formation at Pope St. John XXIII National Seminary. The faculty, fellow seminarians, and people of God have made my desire for the priesthood grow even more. I am about to be ordained to the Transitional Diaconate for the Archdiocese of Boston. I remember with gratitude some great missionaries from the United States who evangelized us in Africa; Fr Jim Kelly, C.S.C., Russell McDougall, C.S.C., Fr. Peter Major, MHM, and Fr. Robert White, SJ. The tide has seemingly turned, as the evangelizers are now becoming the evangelized. The sons and daughters from mission territories like Cameroon are now taking the Gospel to established Christian lands. It will be a great honor for me to serve as a priest of the historic See of Boston. 

Pope Saint John Paul the Great has been one of the great influences in my discernment to the priesthood. He was a priest par excellence and my study and writing of him has motivated me to follow in his footsteps to the Lord’s altar. More personally, Fr. Maurice Agbaw-Ebai played a major role in my return to the seminary. His love of Christ and the Church has made a big impact on me. I also cannot overemphasize the impact of the great Irish missionary to Africa, Fr. Anthony Murphy, MHM, on my vocation life. Fr. Murphy served the Church in Africa for over forty years. He was the pastor of my former home parish in Cameroon. On the day I reported to the seminary in Boston in 2020, Fr. Murphy described my vocation story, “John, this is very good news indeed, and I’m delighted for you. You have been circling around your vocation for a long time. You remind me of Francis Thompson’s famous poem, ‘The Hound of Heaven’. Jesus is the ‘hound’: patiently following his chosen one till the latter finally surrenders.  Please God all will go well for you now.” I am just about to surrender, in a couple of days, when I will prostrate myself on God’s altar.”

The Cameroon Community of Boston and Ste Anne Parish under the leadership of Dr. Hilary Aroke and Dr. Judith Fokum organized a grand reception following the Thanksgiving Mass at Ste Anne Parish. The Sasse Old Boys spiced the reception, feeling very proud that a SOBAN has cut the ribbon as the First Cameroonian to become a cleric for the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston. The CWA Mamas lived up to their reputation of delivering a great Cameroon cuisine for all present. God willing, and as we continue to pray, next year, Rev. John Tanyi will become a priest for the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston. His ordination motto is taken from the words of St. John Paul II: “When a man says YES to the Lord, his YES is forever”. Let is keep Rev. Tanyi in our prayers, that he will continue to say YES to the Lord like his great mentor, St John Paul the Great.

Bertrand Etukeni Agbaw-Ebai

Cameroon Concord US Bureau Chief

48th Plenary Assembly: 16-22 April 2023

Archbishops and Bishops of Cameroon,

The Secretary General NECC,

Reverend Fathers and Lay collaborators at NECC,

Dear Journalists, men and women of the Media,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

1. “The Lord is Risen, Alleluia – Yes, He is truly Risen Alleluia1”.  It is with this Easter refrain that I would like to welcome all the Archbishops and Bishops of Cameroon and their collaborators who have gathered here in the National Episcopal Center, for the 48th Plenary Session of the National Episcopal Conference of Cameroon. I would equally like to welcome each one of you here present, as well as greet all Civil, Military, Traditional, Political and Religious authorities wherever they are at the moment – a very Happy Easter to you all. The first words of the Risen Lord to his Apostles were: “Peace be with you”. This greeting is very relevant for all of us in present-day Cameroon. So, as we begin this Plenary Assembly of the Bishops, I would like to greet the whole of Cameroon with the same  words of the Risen Christ: “Peace be with you”.

2. After forty days of fasting and abstinence, we celebrated in our various dioceses one of the most important events in our religious and spiritual life: the Solemnity of Easter, a symbol of how suffering leads to rebirth. The Resurrection of Christ is of particular interest to us because at Easter, the movement from death to life, engages each of us in a very personal manner. We who are gathered here on this day after the Divine Mercy Sunday, know for certain that our destiny and our life, would have had no meaning without the Resurrection of Christ. This is both crucial and central to our history and our journey towards God. 

3.Like the Apostles on the day after Easter, we have to proclaim Christ victorious over death, to our society marked by various sufferings – socio-political crises, agricultural difficulties, the lack of farm to market roads, repeated killings, the Covid-19 pandemic, high cost of living and other social injustices, to name just a few. In this kind of atmosphere, we must continue to bear witness to our faith in a world that seems to have lost its bearings and which now gives way to all kinds of abuses.

Albeit, our ongoing efforts for the return of peace in our country have not been in vain, because, despite the continuous threats from Boko Haram in the North and the prevailing insecurity in the North West and South West Regions, we do not give up, instead we ask Christ the Risen One to shower us with His peace. Thanks be to God, relative calm is returning to the North West and South West Regions, some businesses are reopening and many children are going back to school. This is a great sign of hope, but the situation of insecurity still remains very preoccupying.

4. In the recent months, we have been very saddened by the various extra-judicial killings that have been taking place in our society, top among which was the murder of the Journalist, Martinez Zogo, in Yaoundé. The bishops of Cameroon together with the Universal Catholic Church have always called on all peoples to respect human life, which is a gift from God from the moment of conception to its natural death. To kill someone is a sin against the 5th Commandment of the Decalogue and this commandment clearly states: “Thou shall not kill”. It is our prayer and hope that the real killers of fellow citizens will be clearly identified and brought to book according to the laws of our country. We make a very strong appeal here to all Cameroonians, to stop killing one another. We are all brothers and sisters of the same Fatherland, and children of the same God who is Father to us all.

5. During this 48th Plenary Assembly, we will, as we are accustomed to, give priority to listening to reports from the 14 commissions which represent the daily life of our Conference. This will give us the opportunity to find solutions to some important points which directly affect the future of our Conference as well as concretely revisit issues which were discussed during the seminars in Obala, Bafang, Ngaoundéré and Ebolowa.

6. We have to rewrite together, as it were, the pages which give answers to the questions we have been asking ourselves in recent years: “What kind of Episcopal Conference do we want? We are all called to work together to build this house more solidly. And to achieve this, each of us must move from “I” to “we”; from just thinking about “my diocese” to thinking about “our conference.” We are doing everything possible to improve both the living conditions of the priests who are resident here, as well as the working conditions of the commissions. We are happy to note that the  CoSMO Project  which was presented to us in Ebolowa,  has already taken off  as an outreach of our Conference. Its implementation in some target dioceses will gradually enable us to reach all the others for the good of vulnerable children in our country.

Last year, we asked the Episcopal Commission for Communication to take over from the Archdiocese of Douala, both the production and distribution of our national newspaper “L’Effort Camerounais.”  All of us are certainly glad to see the current 16-page Newspaper in colour and in its 5th publication already. While we render sincere thanks to the Archdiocese of Douala which kept the flame of this historic Newspaper burning, we encourage our Communication Commission to keep up the good work they have begun and to ensure that the paper regains its original impact and even more. 

7. After one year of our mandate in office as President of the National Episcopal Conference, we are still very committed to the construction and transformation of Marienberg in the Diocese of Edea, into a National Pilgrimage Centre. Our people need to pray; our country needs prayers and we have to look up to the Blessed Virgin Mary who is the Comforter of the Afflicted, Mirror of Justice, Help of Christians and Queen of Peace, to intercede for us.

8.May the same Blessed Virgin Mary, Queen of Apostles and Special Patroness of Cameroon, intercede for us so that we can achieve our common objectives and worthily announce the Good News of the  Risen Lord to all creation. It is with this urgent invocation then that I now declare open, the 48th Plenary Assembly of the Bishops of Cameroon.

Done in Mvolye, Yaoundé, this Tuesday 18 April 2023

+Andrew NKEA,

Archbishop of Bamenda,

President of the National Episcopal Conference of Cameroon

Cameroon’s reconstruction plan for the troubled English-speaking regions is working despite ongoing violence, according Archbishop Andrew Nkea Fuanya of Bamenda.

The plan was established on April 3, 2020, to rebuild infrastructure that have been shattered by a separatist war in the African country’s North West and South West regions.

Cameroon’s two English-speaking regions which constitute 20 percent of the country’s 27 million people has been the center of fighting to create a new country, which separatists call Ambazonia.

The crisis began in 2016, when teachers and lawyers in the two regions took to the streets to protest what they perceived as the over-bearing influence of French in British system schools and common law courts which have existed since the former British Cameroon joined with French Cameroon in 1961. (The two Cameroons had been a single German territory until the end of World War I, when it was divided by the two Allied powers.)

The government responded to the protests by firing on the demonstrations with live ammunition, leading to the separatist rebellion the next year. The separatist war has left at least 6000 people dead and over a million displaced, according to the International Crisis Group.

As of June 2019, at least 80 percent of schools in the two regions were closed, according to UNICEF, affecting over 700,000 children.

The health sector has also been hard hit. In 2020, the then-coordinator of the Presidential Plan for the Development of the two regions, Paul Tasong, told Crux that “in 2016, we had some 170 doctors in the hospitals and health centers. By 2019, that situation fell to 71 doctors, and the specialists became very rare. And we noticed that the rate of women giving birth to children at home in 2016 was slightly above 2 percent in the two regions, but unfortunately by 2019/2020, this situation degraded, and up to 9 percent of women gave birth to children at home. This is catastrophic. The same situation is reflected in the rate of vaccinations in the two regions.”

The Reconstruction Plan calls for the repair or replacement of 350 schools, 90 health centers, and 40 bridges. In addition, over 12,000 homes that have been destroyed will need to be replaced. Some 700 farmers will also have to be recapitalized and 200,000 people who lost official documents – including school certificates, national certificates and civil status documents –will have to be assisted in replacing them.

Speaking March 29 during a visit by Balungeli Confiance Ebune, the Chairman of the Steering Committee of the Presidential Plan, to the St. Joseph School in Bamenda, Nkea said the plan was ‘building back better.”

“We [the Catholic Church] have benefitted in a very big way from the renovation of schools, and to ensure that children go back to school in better conditions than before,” the archbishop said.

A typical example was the St. Joseph nursery and primary school in Bamenda’s Old Town. It had been destroyed, but has now been completely reconstructed.

“The reconstruction respects the principle of building back better,” Nkea said.

He noted that it wasn’t only the Catholic Church that has benefitted for the reconstruction plan. Other Christian denominations and religions have benefitted as well, including the city’s Islamic primary school.

The archbishop emphasized that “the plan is working, and those still skeptical should understand.”

He called on all to work together to ensure that “we get back our society in a better way than it was before.”

During an evaluation meeting to assess the level of reconstruction, Ebune called on young people to “continue to join the active forces of the nation for long lasting  peace and development to be achieved.”

But experts have questioned the government’s decision to rebuild in the middle of continued fighting. On the same day the archbishop was making his remarks, the military was engaged in what critics have described as a scorched earth policy in Kumbo, one of the largest towns in Cameroon’s North West region.

A Catholic sister who requested not to be named for security purposes told Crux that “separatist fighters in Kumbo carried out deadly attacks targeting the military on March 29. The fighters detonated an explosive device that hit an armored car, and it was followed by a rocket-propelled grenade that they used on the military unit. The military retaliated by burning homes and property.”

Professor Verkijika Fanso of the University of Yaoundé told Crux that it was practically impossible to effectively carry out reconstruction while the fighting seems to be intensifying.

“Let them first stop the war,” he said. “Just [on March 29], several homes were burnt in Kumbo. How do you reconstruct while destroying at the same time?”

Source: Crux

Fr. Olivier Ntsa Ebode, a Catholic priest in the Lékié region of Cameroon, has been found dead.

According to local press reports, he was murdered in the night between the 28th February and the 1st March, after being lured out of his house by men claiming that a relative of theirs was sick and wanted to see him.

Cameroonian news website 237online said that Fr Ebode was a “respected figure” in the community, known for his commitment to peace and social justice.

Instability is on the rise in Cameroon, parts of which are suffering from conflict between government forces and separatists. Around 800,000 people are estimated to have been displaced, and at least 6,000 killed.

Source: Vatican News

The exploitation of Africa has remained a major talking point across the continent, especially after Pope Francis roundly condemned what he called “economic colonialism” in Africa.

On his long-awaited trip to the Democratic Republic of Congo and South Sudan, the pope repeatedly decried the transformation of ill treatment from political domination to economic victimization.

“Political exploitation (of the Congo and more generally of Africa) gave way to an economic colonialism that was equally enslaving,” Pope Francis told an audience of Congolese politicians and other dignitaries. “As a result,” he continued, “this country, massively plundered, has not benefited adequately from its immense resources.”

“It is a tragedy that these lands, and more generally the whole African continent, continue to endure various forms of exploitation,” Francis said. “The poison of greed has smeared its diamonds with blood,” he said—a reference to what has become known as Congo’s blood diamonds.

“Hands off the Democratic Republic of the Congo! Hands off Africa! Stop choking Africa: it is not a mine to be stripped or a terrain to be plundered,” Francis warned.

That message has continued to make headlines.

The Bishop of the Cameroonian diocese of Buea, Michael Bibi, whose diocese is located in the far south of Cameroon’s majority anglophone western regions, told Crux the Pope’s “economic colonialism” criticism was a reference to the idea of neo-colonialism.

In a conversation with Crux, Bibi described the political liberty African nations obtained from their erstwhile colonial overlords as a “flag and anthem” independence,  “while the purse strings remained in the hands of the former colonial masters.”

Bibi said he sees a marked difference in the levels of such neo-colonial arrangements between former British and French colonies. “France,” he said, “more than any other former colonial power, continues to have an iron grip in the economic and political affairs of her former colonies.”

“Many wonder whether we should even use the adjective ‘former’,” Bibi said, adding that the rate at which young Africans are dying in the Mediterranean Sea “as they risk their lives in search of greener pastures in Europe,” dramatically illustrates the relevance of the pope’s message.

Bibi said that the degree and extent of interference in the economic affairs of African states differs between the former colonial powers.

“Some of the biggest economies in Sub-Saharan Africa are former colonies of Britain (Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya, Ghana) and these countries are also the leading democracies on the Continent,” he said. “When you compare their lot with that of the former French (and Belgian) colonies, you begin to see that France, more than any other former colonial power, continues to have an iron grip in the economic and political affairs of her former colonies.”

“Frequently,” Bibi went on to say, “these states have turned to China for help, but they are often so weak that they cannot strike a fair bargain with the Chinese Government. When loans are given, the construction must be done by a Chinese company.”

The resulting picture is one in which the major players fostering this economic colonization “are the former colonial powers in Europe, especially France, the Chinese, and the Americans as well.”

He said that France uses “a complicated network of financial economic policies and political control through the threat of regime change and their military presence to maintain the status quo,” while China exercises financial and commercial influence through loans, and “the Americans use their influence over the United Nations Security Council and the IMF and similar International Organization to have their way over many issues.”

Bibi said there is a cultural element to the involvement of Western powers, especially, in African affairs. “Another major instrument used by the players, especially the former colonial masters, is the formation of Associations ostensibly to celebrate the same culture such as the Francophonie and the Commonwealth of Nations,” he said.

Colonization, in Bibi’s view, continues to affect the continent’s economic life and impact the impact on the lives of ordinary people.

“The economic life of the African continent will not change,” Bibi said, “if foreigners continue to make all the decisions.” He went on to say: “If Africans must be the first beneficiary of the economic decisions of the continent, then they themselves must make the decisions.

Bibi said that the mass migration of young Africans to Europe and America of young Africans, “who should stay back and contribute towards the development of the continent,” is one consequence of the current state of affairs.

African leaders are not blameless, in Bibi’s view, many of whom for many years “have played this role of accomplices sometimes willingly and sometimes unwillingly,” but always with the same consequences.

“It is often said that the oppressor would not be so strong if he did not have accomplices among the oppressed,” Bibi said, adding that he believes African leaders should “look less on what they stand to lose” in standing up to those who would exploit their nations and peoples.

“Economic colonization is a dynamic phenomenon,” he said, noting the recent economic summit to which US President Joe Biden had invited them, and a similar invitation from China, and the knowledge that Russia has another similar meeting in the works.

Bibi said African leaders “must use this opportunity to seize control over their economic affairs because it may never be given to them on a platter of gold. Freedom, whether economic or political, must be seized.”

“Too often,” Bibi said, “they only seek to protect their small individual interests at the detriment of that of their countries.”

Bibi spoke also of the “will to be free” that both leaders and citizens in Africa “must have.” Leaders, he said, “must have the courage to enact policies that will benefit their people and their countries first. They must have the courage to bear the consequences of doing so.”

African citizens, for their part, “must start giving up short term solutions like struggling by all means to travel out of the country.”

“The people who will make Africa great,” Bibi said, “are not those who travel out, but those who remain to work: to open up businesses, whether farms or factories.” Bibi noted that some of those who leave think that they will come back and do that, but in the main, they gradually become “absorbed by the material abundance in the West and forget about their lofty ambitions.”

“Africans,” said the bishop of Buea, “must love their continent enough to want to stay back and contribute to its development.”

Source: Crux

Catholic leaders in Cameroon have condemned the Jan. 22 murder of a local journalist, comparing the slaying to the 2017 assassination of Bishop Jean-Marie Benoît Balla of Bafia.

The lifeless body of Martinez Zogo, 51, was found along the road to Soa, nine miles from the capital city. His remains were in an advanced state of decomposition, but preliminary investigations reportedly showed signs the journalist, who was also the director general of the urban radio station Amplitude FM, had been tortured, sodomized, and mutilated.

Zogo went missing on January 17. Reports say that he was running toward a local police station to evade a threat when he was grabbed by unidentified men and carted off in a black, unmarked car.

His death has generated national and global condemnation.

“The assassination of this journalist has shocked everyone,” said the Archbishop of Douala, Samuel Kleda, in a Jan. 26 statement.

“A journalist isn’t a thief,” Kleda said. “A journalist who is only doing his job is kidnapped. He is tortured, and he is killed and then dumped in the bush near a village, as if he were a highway robber.”

“It shouldn’t be so in a country worth its salt, in a country of laws where human rights are respected,” he said. “We strongly condemn the assassination of this journalist.”

Kleda then drew parallels between the assassination of Martinez Zogo and that Balla six years ago.

“It’s almost the same scenario. When I look at the way this journalist was killed, I think about the disappearance and the assassination of the Bishop of Bafia, Jean-Marie Benoit Balla.”

“He too, like Martinez Zogo went missing [and] was tortured before being killed,” Kleda said.

Balla disappeared on the night of May 30-31, 2017, and his corpse was discovered floating on the Nyong River on June 2. The country’s bishops indicated that he had undergone significant torture before being murdered.

“Who is killing Cameroonians?”, Kleda asked.

“They tell us that investigations will be conducted, but the results of such investigations are never made public,” he said.

Kleda said he was at a loss to understand why a journalist who ran for safety to a police station could be taken away and the security personnel wouldn’t pursue the kidnappers.

“It’s horrible! It’s inadmissible! There is a serious problem if a citizen can’t be protected by Gendarmes,” he said.

“Why did the police not seek to find the journalist after learning about his disappearance? The police and the gendarmerie could have done everything possible to find the journalist alive. They didn’t do that,” Kleda charged.

He said it was incomprehensible that nobody has been suspected or arrested in connection with the murder.

“It’s curious,” Kleda said. “There is a need to find the killers of this journalist. Those who committed this odious act must be found and punished in accordance with the law.”

He said he couldn’t understand why the President of the Republic, Paul Biya, won’t make at least a statement concerning the assassination the of the journalist, and wondered if the lives of Cameroonians really matter to him.

“When Bishop Balla was brutally assassinated, I said it was one more death too many. I have to make the same statement today after the brutal assassination of the journalist. Cameroonians aren’t protected. Cameroonians don’t feel secure. We can’t understand why the President of the Republic has remained silent in the face of such a grave issue,” Kleda said.

The National Union of Journalists of Cameroon said they were dismayed by the “heinous assassination” of their colleague.

The International Press Institute, a Vienna-based press freedom organization, has urged Cameroonian authorities to “promptly investigate the horrific murder of journalist Martinez Zogo and ensure that those responsible are brought to justice.”

Jean-Michel Nintcheu, a lawmaker from the opposition Social Democratic Front, said in a press statement that it was “a crime’ that should never go unpunished.

The Director-General of UNESCO, Audrey Azoulay ,has also condemned the killing and called on the government “ not to let this crime go unpunished. Journalists play an essential part in nurturing and upholding democratic governance. They deserve every necessary protection.”

The head of Reporters Without Borders’ Sub Saharan Africa Desk, Sadibou Marong, said there are “many gray areas regarding the circumstances of his brutal abduction.”

“The authorities must launch a rigorous, thorough and independent investigation to establish the full chain of responsibility and the circumstances that led to this sad event,” he said.

Cameroonian novelist Calixthe Beyala said she was “dejected, saddened. I knew he was dead as soon as it was announced he had been kidnapped. One can ask the question: Whose turn it is? Each of us can find ourselves in this situation for something that we might have said.”

Zogo’s brutal murder casts a long shadow on freedom of the press in Cameroon, and adds to the growing number of attacks on journalists in Cameroon.

In August 2019, journalist Samuel Wazizi was arrested by security forces in Buea in Cameroon’s South West region. After ten months without access to his lawyers or family, authorities finally announced he had died in detention. An investigation carried out by the military police has never been made public.

According to statistics from the Committee to Protect Journalists,17 journalists have either been killed or imprisoned in Cameroon over the last ten years. The largest number of journalists being jailed took place in 2020 when 9 journalists were imprisoned.

Some local observers believe Zogo might have been murdered for investigating and reporting on corruption scandals, some involving senior figures in the country’s political life.

Culled from Crux