Cameroon: New revelations on the Eloundou Magloire case

La prison principale de Kondengui

The report of the commission of inquiry in charge of investigating the death of the former financial director of the national Assembly, which occurred on September 22 in the central prison of Yaoundé, leaked to the press and gives disturbing information on the case and many other sensitive issues in Cameroon.

Uncertainty remained high about the reasons for the death of a man who has climbed almost all the steps of success in Cameroon. After a brilliant primary and secondary career, Magloire Eloundou has indeed joined the National School of Administration and Magistracy, the only one which trains administrators and magistrates in the civil service in Cameroon. He was above all an influential man in Cameroon because of his multiple affinities with the highest leaders at the head of Cameroon. To everyone’s surprise, the state agent had been held in Yaounde central prison. He was accused of being active in a vast network whose mission was to finance certain armed groups operating in the two predominantly English-speaking regions of Cameroon apart from the fact that he was accused of financial mismanagement at the National Assembly; an affair compromised after the night fire on November 16-17, 2017 in the National Assembly

However, several discreet testimonies from personalities close to the case are unanimous on the fact that Magloire Eloundou is one of the many victims of a lynching initiated against certain senior leaders. A source added that several other personalities are targeted by the plot, which is larger than one might imagine and whose aim is to end their lives. The hypothesis of this criminal hand is further reinforced by the discoveries made by the commission charged with investigating the case. Their report, which has leaked to the press, contains precise and exclusive revelations on the circumstances of Magloire Eloundou’s death. According to this investigation, the man was killed in his cell. A conclusion reached because of the fact that his body showed many signs of torture. « Deep wounds, several scars, clothes wet with the victim’s blood » details the report. The testimony of Magloire Eloundou’s cellmate reveals that he was subjected to frequent and endless interrogations. That he was asked to confess certain things in spite of himself or to name certain people close to him. The investigation, which was very meticulous, reveals a major money laundering network orchestrated both by the officials of the Yaounde central prison and certain detainees arrested as part of Operation Epervier (lien vers un article qui parle de l’opération épervier)  (an operation that identifies and imprisons all senior executives who embezzle public funds) about a hundred of former ministers are nowadays in jail  dans le cadre de l’opération épervier) as part of this operation . The commission of inquiry is also said to have uncovered an organized group of personalities who organize and support the trafficking of military equipment, intended to secretly equip certain armed groups operating in the North West and South West regions and in the northern part of Cameroon. 

The survey also looked at the list of people and personalities targeted by this network, such as Magloire Eloundou. Several names are cited, including that of journalist Michel Biem Tong, who had been imprisoned for revealing certain confidential information on the conflict in the English-speaking regions. Denunciations from the press led to his release, but in order to save his life he had to go into exile in Germany after being chased several times by armed men. Laurence Tchougwe is obviously one of the potential targets according to the investigation. The parliamentarian and employee of the company Inter Parlementary research network (a private company located in Douala, outsourcing some markets either legal or financial for the national assembly is actively sought. The latter has reportedly been out of the country since then and the Cameroonian authorities have issued an arrest warrant against him and he is expected in Cameroon. An expectation that has nothing to reassure the latter when we look at the revelations contained in the investigators’ report concerning certain relatives of Laurence Tchougwe.

In an attempt to put pressure on Laurence Tchougwe and return him to Cameroon, family members have been attacked and some killed. The survey specifically indicates that Three of his children were killed by unidentified gunmen a few days after the Cameroonian authorities issued a search warrant. Neighbors of the Tchougwe family reported that their executioners wore uniforms of the army and inflicted extreme torture on them before killing them. On top of that, his wife Ms. Tchougwe Mireille Nsongo with two children and his step brother Abel Elong are actually nowhere to be found. These revelations suggest that the accusations of fraud against Laurence Tchougwe are only a pretext to allow the execution of the macabre plan which targets some people and personalities. The proximity of these people to the armed groups which have been fighting since 2016 in the North-West and South-West regions is one of the reasons put forward which does not leave the shadow of an inordinate determination towards the people targeted by this masquerade. 

Indeed, the government is very cruel to all those suspected of directly or indirectly supporting armed groups or supporters of separatism; Sisiku Julius Ayuk Tabe, the former first president of the unrecognized Republic of Ambazonia was sentence to life by the military Court. Over the past four years we have witnessed summary executions on the ground as was the case in Ngarbuh recently (families who were suspected of collaborating with the secessionists), we have also witnessed multiple an ever stronger armed response on the ground against these people considered enemies of Cameroon. According to some sources, the state has pledged to do so in absolute silence to avoid attracting the attention of the international community in a conflict that has already claimed more than 3,000 lives.

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