Atrocities in NW, SW: US court convicts three top financiers, master planners.

A Federal Trial Jury is said to have arrived at the conviction following a trial that spanned December 1 to 8, 2025, on the defendants’ involvement in atrocities committed in the North West and South West Regions.

The United States Attorney’s Office in the Western District of Missouri in a statement issued Tuesday, December 9, identified the three persons convicted as; Chi Ngenevu Claude aged 40; Francis Chenyi, 49, and Nah Nestor Langmi, 46.

In the declaration, the Attorney’s Office indicated that the accused were convicted for different charges related to their involvement in the bloody armed conflict that is inching into a decade in the English-speaking Regions.

In a statement released on November 28, 2022, after their arrest on the November 18 of the same year, the same Attorney’s Office had said among others that the trio was at the origin of documents that detailed “…other expenditures including funds related to the kidnapping of Cardinal Christian Tumi and of a Cameroonian traditional leader named Sehm Mbinglo II on November 5, 2020”.

Communicating on the matter Tuesday, the Attorney’s Office specified that: “The evidence presented at trial showed that on around November 5, 2020, Langmi sent an audio message to separatist fighters requesting they kidnap a traditional leader in Cameroon”.

A press release from the same office noted that: “Langmi said he had been tracking the traditional leader’s movements prior to the kidnapping. Following a battle with Cameroonian forces, separatists took the traditional leader along with the Catholic Cardinal Christian Tumi, who was traveling with the traditional leader, from their vehicles”.

Teleguiding grilling of Tumi, Fon Mbinglo 

The statement also indicated that once the duo was abducted, Chenyi from his home in the United States, took charge of questions which separatist fighters posed to Cardinal Tumi and the Fon. 

“Following the kidnapping, Chenyi, provided the interrogation questions to be asked to the traditional leader and the Cardinal and approved the transferring of funds through peer-to-peer transactions to the separatists fighters in Cameroon to further the kidnapping,” Tuesday’s press release noted.

What else have they been convicted for?

The release from the same US judicial office also specified that two of the defendants Chenyi and Langmi were found guilty of the count of conspiracy “to provide material support or resources intended it be used to carry out conspiracies to kill, kidnap, and maim persons in a foreign country”. 

The note added that the same persons abetted the use of Weapons of Mass Destruction, WMD, out of the United States.

The same jury, the statement noted, established that Langmi and  Chenyi are “…guilty of one count of being involved in an international money laundering conspiracy that transferred funds from the United States to Cameroon to promote conspiracies to kill, kidnap, and maim and use WMDs abroad”.

Chenyi was, according to the release, additionally convicted for “conspiring to provide material support and resources to use a WMD abroad”.

“We’ll hold you accountable…”

The public statement on Monday’s final hearing quoted United States Attorney, Mathew Price, as having noted that: “As the verdict indicates, whether you’re committing a crime locally or as in this case, supporting illegal conduct half a world away, when you conspire to violate federal law, we will hold you accountable”.

It also quoted Federal Bureau of Investigations, FBI, Special Agent in Charge, Stephen Cyrus, of Kansas City Field Division as having noted that: “The guilty verdict brings to close a conspiracy by a group of US Citizens of Cameroonian origin to support a plot that, among other acts, included kidnapping Cameroonian civilians and holding them for ransom”.

Cyrus, the press release of Tuesday also added, opined that the actions of the defendants, “…also included providing equipment, supplies, and weapons to a separatist movement for the purpose of carrying out attacks against the government of Cameroon and its personnel”.

The statement further quoted him as having also insisted that the verdict “…should send a strong message to anyone in the United States looking to provide support to these types of acts across the world”.

How far they went

Aside abductions, the statement on the conviction also noted that Langmi tried to disrupt the Africa Cup of Nations, AFCON, 2021 which Cameroon hosted in 2022.

“Langmi also attempted to coordinate attacks near the 2021 African Cup of Nations soccer tournament hosted in Cameroon, as well as various cities throughout the North West Region throughout the spring of 2022,” the note indicated.

Acting as top members of the Ambazonia Restoration Forces, the press release brings to public knowledge that the concerned were involved in a vast network of financing armed groups in the English-speaking regions.

They are said to have financed the fabrication of Rocket-Propelled Grenades, RPGs, and Improvised Explosive Devices, IEDs. 

The trio is also said to have extensively raised money online since January 1, 2018. The statement on their conviction puts the money raised at 350,000 United States dollars, approximately 198,000,000 FCFA to fund separatist movements.

Langmi, Chenyi and Chi also directed abductions of civilians including Cameroonians in the US with relatives back home for ransom, the statement detailed.

Sentencing, possible years in jail 

According to the note which informed the world of the guilty verdict, the United States Probation Office, is expected to complete presentencing investigations before the three men will be sentenced.

The count of conspiracy to provide material support could earn Langmi and Chenyi 15 years each in jail according to the US federal statutes, the statement specified. 

This is beside another 20 years each for conspiring to “commit international money laundering”. Chi on his part, could be sentenced to 15 years for providing “material support or resources”. 

While the US Congress already outlines maximum legal sentence, Tuesday’s statement cautioned that “the sentencing of the defendants will be determined by the court based on the advisory sentencing guidelines and other statutory factors”. 

This article was first published in The Guardian Post Edition No:3652 of Thursday December 11, 2025