Found guilty of providing financial and logistical support for the manufacture and use of improvised explosive devices in Cameroon, they face heavy sentences.
They receive sentences ranging from five to 15 years of imprisonment. Francis Chenyi, aged 52, Lah Nestor Langmi, 49, are each sentenced to 15 years in prison. Meanwhile, Claude Ngenevu Chi, 43, must serve 63 months in prison, corresponding to a little over 5 years. After serving their respective sentences, the three convicts will each be subjected to three years of supervised release.
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This was decided by the federal court in Kansas City, Missouri. The three Cameroonian nationals are accused of belonging to a network that financed and provided logistics for separatist fighters operating in the Northwest and Southwest regions. They carried out coordination missions for the manufacturing of improvised explosive devices as well as training people for their use, according to media sources.
According to the same sources, this coordination also extended to attacks using these explosives targeting several cities in the Northwest and near the stadium set to host the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations in the Southwest region. Additionally, the justice system accuses these three men of coordinating fund transfers from the United States to Cameroon. These funds were used to carry out the attack projects mentioned above.
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Individually, the justice system accuses Langmi of participating in the coordination of kidnapping operations, including that of traditional chief Fonmbam Aforteka and the late Cardinal Christian Tumi. For these acts, Chenyi is said to have provided financial support.
Thus, three more financiers of the Anglophone crisis have been condemned by the American justice system as part of resolving the crisis. In recent years, other Cameroonians have received various sentences for almost the same reasons. Che Ernest Banhary and Edith Ngang were sentenced to four years in prison. In 2024, about thirty separatist leaders were brought before American courts following several complaints filed by the law firm Me Nsahlai at the request of the Cameroonian state. The United States has committed to continue judging and sentencing these men suspected of financing or committing terrorist acts on Cameroonian territory.
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