Maurice Kamto (born 15 February 1954 in Bafoussam) is a Cameroonian politician, law professor and barrister. He is one of the founders of the opposition Cameroon Renaissance Movement (MRC).
He was a member of the International Law Commission of the United Nations from 1999 to 2016. He was one of the two main agents, the other one being Professor Peter Ntamark in the Cameroonian delegation that successfully led the negotiations to resolve the matter of Bakassi, a peninsula disputed with neighboring Nigeria. His decisive contribution helped him to be appointed as Minister-Delegate to the Minister of Justice in 2004. He resigned from the government in November 2011.[1]
Maurice Kamto after the 2018 Cameroon's Presidential Election
After resigning from the government, Kamto formed a new opposition party, the Cameroon Renaissance Movement (MRC). A kick-off meeting of his party merging multiple parties was prohibited by the government on 13 August 2012.[2]
In the 2018 Cameroonian presidential election Kamto ran as presidential candidate for the MRC. Incumbent President Paul Biya is said to have won, in spite of a fiercely contested result process. Indeed, the entire country watched a strong defence from Kamto’s group of lawyers who pointed the partiality of The Supreme Court of Cameroon that is composed of Biya’s CPDM party members. Kamto was declared runner-up by the Court and said to have received 14 percent of the votes. Kamto challenged the official results and declared himself winner of the election.[3] His supporters held small-scale protests since then.
On 26 January 2019, Maurice Kamto and 200 of his supporters were arrested, and locked up in Kondengui maximum security prison in Yaounde, Cameroon.[4] He was freed on 5 October 2019 along with other leaders of his party, a day after the end of the Major National Dialogue, following an official release by President Biya.[5]
In October 2021, Maurice Kamto declared "I am not sure that waiting after Biya will lead to a change in Cameroon".[6] He is perfectly bilingual.
On July 11, 2024, Maurice Kamto was summoned to be heard by the Cameroonian Gendarmerie Legion on an ongoing investigation.[7]
Paul Biya is a Cameroonian politician who is the second president of Cameroon since 6 November 1982, having previously been the prime minister of Cameroon from 1975 to 1982. He is the second-longest-ruling president in Africa, the longest consecutively serving current non-royal national leader in the world and the oldest head of state in the world. He is regarded as an authoritarian leader and a dictator.
The Cameroon People's Democratic Movement is the ruling political party in Cameroon. Previously known as the Cameroonian National Union, which had dominated Cameroon politics since independence in the 1960s, it was renamed in 1985. The national president of the CPDM is Paul Biya, the president of Cameroon, while the secretary-general of the party Central Committee is Jean Nkuete.
Ahmadou Babatoura Ahidjo was a Cameroonian politician who was the first president of Cameroon, holding the office from 1960 until 1982. Ahidjo played a major role in the establishment of Cameroon as a Neo-imperial state after the assassination of The Union Des Populations Camerounaise (UPC) by imperial France as well as integrating the French and English-speaking parts of the country. During Ahidjo's time in office, he established a centralized political system. Ahidjo established a single-party state under the Cameroon National Union (CNU) in 1966. In 1972, Ahidjo abolished the federation in favor of a unitary state.Ahidjo resigned from the presidency in 1982, and Paul Biya assumed the presidency. This was an action that was surprising to Cameroonians. Accused of being behind a coup plot against Biya in 1984, Ahidjo was sentenced to death in absentia, but he died of natural causes in 1989.
Ni John Fru Ndi was a Cameroonian politician who served as first and founding Chairman of the Social Democratic Front (SDF), the main opposition party in Cameroon, from party foundation in 1990 to his death in 2023. He failed to be elected as a senator in 2013.
Dakole Daïssala was a Cameroonian politician and the President of the Movement for the Defence of the Republic (MDR), a political party based in Cameroon's Far North Region. He served in the government of Cameroon as Minister of State for Posts and Telecommunications from 1992 to 1997; subsequently he was a Deputy in the National Assembly from 1997 to 2002 and then Minister of Transport from 2004 to 2007. He served in the Senate from 2013 until his death.
Since independence, corruption has been more than prevalent in Cameroon. In fact, corruption has become pervasive and has affected all sectors of the government and civil society including the executive, judiciary, police, and even the private sector. The main causes being a deep lack of political will to fight corruption and neopatrimonialism. Other causes include; personal interests and absence of duty conscience, weak judiciary and almost nonexistent opposition in the legislative, nepotism and favouritism, ineffective system of accountability, among others.
The Cameroon Renaissance Movement is a political party in Cameroon.
Edith Kahbang Walla, popularly known as Kah Walla, is a Cameroonian politician, entrepreneur and social activist. She went into politics in 2007 with the Social Democratic Front (SDF), the then main Cameroonian opposition party and was then elected into the municipal council of Douala I. In 2010, she resigned from SDF following a divergence over strategy and declared her intention to run for the 2011 presidential election on October 23, 2010. On April 30, 2011, she was elected as the president of the Cameroon People's Party (CPP) and party candidate for 2011 presidential election.
Presidential elections were held in Cameroon on 7 October 2018.
The Anglophone Crisis, also known as the Ambazonia War, is an ongoing armed conflict in the English-speaking Northwest and Southwest regions of Cameroon, between the Cameroonian government and separatist rebel groups, part of the long-standing Anglophone problem. Following the suppression of 2016–17 protests by Cameroonian authorities, separatists in the Anglophone regions launched a guerrilla campaign and later proclaimed independence. Within two months, the government of Cameroon declared war on the separatists and sent its army into the Anglophone regions.
Sisiku Julius Ayuk Tabe is an Ambazonian separatist leader from Ewelle village in Manyu division, and is the disputed first president of the unrecognized Federal Republic of Ambazonia. In January 2018 he was extradited from Nigeria to Cameroon, where he has been incarcerated ever since.
This is a timeline of the Anglophone Crisis during 2019.
From 2018, the Anglophone Crisis drew increasing international attention, and became a challenge to Cameroon's foreign relations. Triggered by a violent crackdown on the 2016–2017 Cameroonian protests, the conflict escalated from a low-scale insurgency to a civil war-like situation. While Cameroon enjoys support from African countries, no country has openly supported the Ambazonian independence movements. However, many countries have put pressure on Cameroon to talk to the separatists. In addition, the separatists enjoy support from officers in the Nigerian Army, who have helped arrange arms deals for them.
The Major National Dialogue is the official name of a dialogue between the Government of Cameroon and various opposition parties, aimed at resolving the Anglophone Crisis. The event took place between September 30 and October 4, 2019.
This is a timeline of the Anglophone Crisis during 2020.
The Ngarbuh massacre took place in northwestern Cameroon on 14 February 2020 during the Anglophone Crisis, and resulted in the murder of 21 civilians, including 13 children, by Cameroonian soldiers and armed Fulani militia.
Christian Penda Ekoka was a Cameroonian government official. He was an advisor to President Paul Biya from 2010 to 2018. In 2018, he supported Maurice Kamto in his unsuccessful candidacy against President Biya.
Presidential elections are due to be held in Cameroon in 2025.
Rolande Adèle Ngo Issi Kella Simgwa is a Cameroonian politician, serving as a member of the national assembly, an alternate member of the Superior Council of the Judiciary, and deputy secretary general of the Network of Women Parliamentarians of Cameroon. Additionally, she holds the position of secretary general of the regional delegation of the Cameroonian Party for National Reconciliation (PCRN) for the Center region.
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