Belgium: Anti-Biya regime protesters batter minister, ambassador.

Minister Mounouna Foutsou is said to have been assaulted alongside long serving Cameroonian Ambassador to Belgium, Daniel Evina Abe’e. 

Minister Mounouna, according to reports, had come to the close of his working visit to Europe and was about leaving for the airport to return home when he was ambushed.

A melee of sorts is said to have erupted with the attackers not only pouring baking flour on the minister but rough handling him in the process. The minister, some reports stated, sustained bruises on a part of his face. 

The ugliest of the scenes is said to have been that involving Ambassador Evina, who some accounts hold, was left with a broken nose.

Images later emerged yesterday after the attack, which was the second during the minister’s visit, showing the aftershock of intense clashes. 

Among the images are some wherein the Minister of Youth Affairs and Civic Education is spotted thunderstruck with flour poured all over his suit. 

It is an even more pathetic picture of a man believed to be Cameroon’s chief diplomat to Belgium, Evina, which made the rounds on social media.

In the picture, the diplomat is seen sitting in bad shape with a bleeding nose coupled with the shirt, trouser and shoes he was putting on, bearing testimony of a bad day.

Minister says no grudges against attackers

Without any official statement to debunk, affirm or clarify public opinion on what might have transpired in Belgium, Minister Mounouna Foutsou was seen in a short amateur video, declaring that he holds no grudge against anyone.

In the company of the President of the Cameroon National Youth Council, Fadimatou Iyawa, the minister, alongside some other persons, said “good bye, no grudges my friends. We will receive you again, there is no problem”. 

One of those who appeared in the video said there were boarding to return home. Unlike the pictures showing the minister attacked and soaked in power, his fatigue in the video, apparently filmed yesterday, showed him dressed in an lndomitable Lion’s tracksuit. 

It is the same dress he had put on while appearing online on Saturday, March 1, 2025, after a rowdy group of persons, believed to be Cameroonians, disrupted a meeting he had planned on Friday February 28 in Brussels, Belgium.

In that first attack during which the protesters missed the minister, it was Prof Bertin Leopold Kouayap, owner of a higher professional institution of learning, who was poured flour repeatedly.

Despite that incident, the youth affairs minister had come back, online, apparently boasting in his putting on of the Indomitable Lions’ tracksuit, stating that he was in a combat mood.

Then, he had said: “Tell them that since they did not see me today [Friday February 28, 2025], tomorrow I will be connected as from 4 p.m. The courageous ones who have something to say, if they are not afraid, even if it is to insult me, let them come”.

He had added that: “I am here, I am their elder brother, parent and family doctor. I am ready to listen to them. They should not be crying on the road...I am ready to listen to them”.

Protesters’ ‘grievances’ 

The rage of the attackers, going by what is on record in amateur videos, is with the Biya regime. They claimed among other things that Cameroon has been poorly managed, with investors fleeing the country.

Additionally, the protesters declared their quest for change in Cameroon, accusing President Biya of ruling the country with an iron fist. They also accused the minister of having visited Belgium to market a book on Biya and perpetuate the exploitation of Cameroonian youths, among other issues.

But what took Minister Mounouna to Belgium?

On Saturday March 1, 2025, Mounouna Foutsou had, in the heat of the first attack, said he visited Europe to engage the Cameroonian Diaspora on voter registration and building a peaceful atmosphere before, during and after the presidential election of this year.

He had qualified the sensisation campaign as part of an “audacious initiative to reinforce the civic capacity of the population and the youths in particular”. The minister said the project had been on since January 29, 2025.

Accusing fingers pointing at anti-Biya regime group

While the government, the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Civic Education and the Cameroon Embassy in Belgium are yet to react to the developments, many have been accusing anti-Biya regime movements in the Diaspora.

Top on the list of suspected groups is the Brigard Anti-Sardinard, BAS, with a history of such violent acts since 2018. The group had at one time attacked some of Cameroon’s diplomatic services across Europe, prompting condemnation from authorities.

This article was first published in The Guardian Post Edition No:3382 of Tuesday March 04, 2025