"Crooks, profiteers and blood suckers of all kinds have contributed to the misfortunes of Cameroon and other countries. Those who have emptied the coffers of the state are countless. We have tracked down those men and women who for years, have shamelessly plundered the economy of a country which needed everything except this. In this first article, we name some of these corrupt individuals. There are many more. This is just the beginning. We take full responsibility for our actions. We have the evidence to support our claims, and we will publish them if that becomes necessary..."
It is with these ominous lines that the January 1992 issue of Jeune Afrique Economie (JAE) opened its investigative report on corruption in Cameroon (pp. 175-183), which it titled "Chronique d'un Pillage Annoncé" (Chronicle of an advertised plunder).
In its report, JAE identified 15 individuals whose corruption and mismanagement had allegedly contributed to Cameroon's downward economic spiral, prominent among them, Robert Messi Messi, whom it branded “the most famous scoundrel on the Cameroonian political landscape". This report eventually led to Robert Messi Messi's equally explosive revelations in the same publication four months later, which directly implicated President Biya and his wife, Jeanne Irène, in the collapse of Cameroon's leading bank, the Société Camerounaise de Banque (SCB).
Today, we make available the complete report from JAE (thanks to our friends at ICICEMAC), which began a process that rocked the foundations of Cameroon's political system back in 1992.
It is worth noting that none of the individuals listed in the report ever pressed charges against JAE, and none of them (apart from Messi Messi) was particularly bothered by the State. In fact, many of them are still key actors in the Biya regime. Finally, only Messi Messi deigned to publicly give his own side of the story.
Lest we forget…
Click here to print or download the complete JAE Report in PDF format (in French)
Tags: Cameroon Africa Corruption
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