The body representing lawyers strongly condemns violations by rape against the physical integrity of children. It urges several administrations to strengthen prevention and repression measures against the perpetrators.
Between March and the end of May 2026, about twenty cases of child rapes, sometimes followed by murder, have been brought to public attention through various channels. Despite the growing anger in public opinion to denounce them, the perpetrators continue their dirty work. The situation is now becoming a phenomenon, provoking the outcry of human rights defenders. The Cameroon Bar Association indeed condemns violations of the physical integrity of children, sometimes very young, “whose purity and innocence are violated and stolen by devils without faith or law.”
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The Bar Association is even more outraged to learn that most of the rape cases involve teachers. Schools are pointed out as places where these violations occur. “The devil is now at school and hides behind the otherwise noble coat of teachers. Thus, the school, which was a safe place for children, would also be on the way to being infested by sexual criminals,” laments the Bar, which lists the twenty cases reported since March 2026.
It is with dismay that the Bar says it has learned of cases. That of Mr. Materne Rameaux Abomo Ngono, a teacher who allegedly abused about fifteen young children aged 04 to 14 in the Meyo neighborhood in the city of Yaoundé, is the most illustrative. Next to him is the case of Divine Nawal, aged 03, a student in a school in Yaoundé in the Odza neighborhood, who is also said to be a victim of rape. One case too many that sparked public demonstrations near her school on May 28, 2026. The case of another 14-year-old girl raped by her teacher at PK14 in Douala, Littoral region, and that of another 10-year-old girl raped by a teacher in Bangangte in the West region are on the list. In the Northwest, a girl was allegedly raped by a septuagenarian, who reportedly gave 30,000 francs to the victim’s aunt to avoid the harshness of justice. These cases also recall the rape and murder of Divine Mbarga Atangana, an 11-year-old girl whose body was found in Yaoundé on March 19, 2026.
Faced with the phenomenon and beyond denunciation, the Cameroon Bar Association deplores the leniency with which sexual predators are released. It calls on all actors in the criminal justice chain to maintain a firm tone and a heavy hand against sexual aggressors; denounces amicable arrangements between victims’ parents and sexual predators; urges the Minister of Basic Education and the Minister of Secondary Education to increase the prudential measures related to the morality investigation during teacher recruitment; encourages synergy between these ministries and the Ministry of Social Affairs; creates a special unit responsible for assisting, advising, and defending cases of child rape; and provides a phone number through which victims of child rape can contact the body, 654 815 610. The body thus participates in the crusade launched by the government to put an end to the phenomenon.
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