Issa Tchiroma Bakary reveals over 10,000 billion francs lost in Cameroon through gold, oil, and wood plunder

In a bombshell declaration, Issa Tchiroma Bakary exposes massive looting of gold, oil, and wood — totalling more than 10,000 billion CFA francs — alongside fraudulent public contracts, tax evasion, and the illicit enrichment of President Paul Biya’s inner circle.

“Fellow citizens, ladies and gentlemen, I was struck by the 2,000 billion francs in stolen gold. That alone prompted me to instruct my teams in Cameroon and worldwide to gather a detailed picture of the public finances. And what I found leaves one with anger, pain, astonishment, and even revolt. Indeed, it is a truism that over 43 years, this regime has dragged Cameroon from relative prosperity to absolute poverty and misery for its people…

Let me present the facts. The first pillar of predation concerns subsoil resources — oil. For 40 years, the SNH generated oil revenues off-budget, without parliamentary oversight and with zero transparency. The IMF, World Bank, and EITI have flagged enormous flows leaving the country that never appeared in official accounts. Oil sold to Glencore at less than 30% of its value, missing shipments, and unrecorded SNH revenues add up to several thousand billion CFA francs. The forests suffered the same fate: 80% of timber is sold illegally. Cameroon’s land has been plundered in broad daylight with state complicity. Ladies and gentlemen, between gold, oil, and wood, more than 10,000 billion francs have vanished.

The second pillar is the direct embezzlement through fraudulent public contracts. Budget lines 65 and 94 for the period 2012–2021 were simply erased. These two lines alone represent 5,400 billion francs in unjustified spending. The TCS, created by Biya himself, has judged and convicted his own servants for nearly 9,000 billion francs in misappropriation between 1997 and 2021. And what about ghost workers? According to the Ministry of Finance and the Treasury, more than 20,000 phantom civil servants appeared on payrolls for years. The annual damage has hovered around 200 billion CFA francs for decades. Everyone remembers the major scandals: the Yaoundé–Douala highway, the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations, and the COVID vaccines — all documented with massive over-invoicing exceeding 500 billion francs.

The third pillar covers tax and customs fraud. ANIF and CONAC have established the existence of systemic fraud mechanisms. Here are their official figures: 1,665 billion CFA francs in suspicious transactions in just 2023; 1,246 billion francs in documented customs fraud over six years; 1,745 billion francs in scanning fraud at the port of Douala attributed to SGS. Given these numbers, one understands the shameful spectacle of SGS and Transatlantic fighting at the Douala port since 2026 — two regime clans battling over control of the same institutionalised fraud.

The fourth and final pillar concerns the personal enrichment of the clan. It is established that the Biya clan has industrially diverted public wealth to acquire private assets in Cameroon, France, and the Middle East. Dutch authorities identified 744 million euros in ill-gotten assets in France, plus the Nyom estate of the SGPR valued at 18 billion CFA francs; assets in Dubai estimated at 44 billion CFA francs; stays at the Hotel Continental in Geneva costing $50,000 per night for the entire delegation. Without exception, Mr. Biya, his wife, his son, the SGPR, DCC, DCCA, MINAT, and many others have amassed considerable personal fortunes while never satisfying the asset declaration requirement under Article 66 of the Constitution.

My dear compatriots, the total amount of predation is revolting. The conservative scenario stands at 26,000 billion CFA francs. That figure is a lower bound, because this regime has perfected the art of concealment through nominees and tax havens. By reasonable extrapolation, our experts estimate the real amount could reach 80,000 billion CFA francs. To illustrate the scale of this plunder: with those 26 billion CFA francs, Cameroon could have paid 36 years of salaries for all 380,000 teachers, healthcare workers, and soldiers combined, and built 2,600 district hospitals — 260 per region.

My dear compatriots, there will be no amnesty and no secret negotiation where impunity is traded for a silent transition. Ladies and gentlemen, every senior official guilty of malfeasance will answer before competent national and international courts…”