Biya orders investigation into gold trafficking.

The instruction is contained in a letter, which the Minister of State, Secretary General at the Presidency of the Republic, Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh, addressed to the Secretary of State to the Minister of Defence in charge of the National Gendarmerie, Yves Galax Etouga Landry.

In the letter, dated February 23, 2026, which has leaked to the public space, Ngoh Ngoh indicated that President Biya has requested the putting in place of a mixed commission of inquiry to shed light on gold trafficking in the country.

The letter reads in part that the Head of State is requesting “the urgent putting in place of a mixed commission of inquiry to establish responsibilities of the different actors implicated in the illegal trafficking of gold”.

He instructed the Gendarmerie boss to submit the report of findings once work is finished, for the high attention of the Head of State. 

The letter is copied among other services and authorities: The Minister of Defence; the Minister of Mines, Industry and Technological Development; the Directorate of External Research, DGRE; the Delegate General for National Security and the National Mining Corporation, SONAMINES.

The National Secretariat of the Kimberley Process, NSKP, is also copied. It is an international entity grouping governments and civil society organisations across the world to ensure transparency and fairness in trade minerals, especially diamonds.

Biya’s order come months after reports emerged at the close of 2025, regarding discrepancies in the quantity of gold from Cameroon sold internationally. 

The 2023 report of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, EITI, indicated that the Directorate General of Customs recorded only 22.3 kilogrammes of gold exported while figures on the international market showed that at the same time, 15.2 tonnes of gold, with origin traced to Cameroon, was sold in the United Arab Emirates, UAE.

Media reports on the issue nationally and internationally had caused the Interim Minister of Mines, Industry and Technological Development, Prof Fuh Calistus Gentry, to issue a release on December 29, 2025.

Prof Fuh Calistus then among other explanations wrote that “…discrepancies arise from the challenges of monitoring porous land borders which are largely used by operators”. 

“These borders are also used by operators from neigbouring countries to transport gold to the United Arab Emirates further enhancing discrepancies,” he had added. 

The interim mines minister had also indicated that to address the problem, government would as at January this year close semi-mechanised artisanal gold mining sites “that do not use a closed-loop miniralised gravel processing system”.

Other measures which he mentioned in his December 29, 2025, release included; the strengthening of the financial and technological capacity of SONAMINES “to facilitate the purchase of gold”, institution of remote monitoring systems “through modern technology to control and emphasise on the development of industrial mining”.

Prof Fuh Calistus had also reassured the public that owing to instructions from the Head of State, government is working to make the gold sector “an exceptional source of financial revenue to broaden the tax base and further strengthen the State’s gold reserves”.

The article was first published in The Guardian Post Edition No:3729 of Thursday March 12, 2026

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The instruction is contained in a letter, which the Minister of State, Secretary General at the Presidency of the Republic, Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh, addressed to the Secretary of State to the Minister of Defence in charge of the National Gendarmerie, Yves Galax Etouga Landry.

In the letter, dated February 23, 2026, which has leaked to the public space, Ngoh Ngoh indicated that President Biya has requested the putting in place of a mixed commission of inquiry to shed light on gold trafficking in the country.

The letter reads in part that the Head of State is requesting “the urgent putting in place of a mixed commission of inquiry to establish responsibilities of the different actors implicated in the illegal trafficking of gold”.

He instructed the Gendarmerie boss to submit the report of findings once work is finished, for the high attention of the Head of State. 

The letter is copied among other services and authorities: The Minister of Defence; the Minister of Mines, Industry and Technological Development; the Directorate of External Research, DGRE; the Delegate General for National Security and the National Mining Corporation, SONAMINES.

The National Secretariat of the Kimberley Process, NSKP, is also copied. It is an international entity grouping governments and civil society organisations across the world to ensure transparency and fairness in trade minerals, especially diamonds.

Biya’s order come months after reports emerged at the close of 2025, regarding discrepancies in the quantity of gold from Cameroon sold internationally. 

The 2023 report of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, EITI, indicated that the Directorate General of Customs recorded only 22.3 kilogrammes of gold exported while figures on the international market showed that at the same time, 15.2 tonnes of gold, with origin traced to Cameroon, was sold in the United Arab Emirates, UAE.

Media reports on the issue nationally and internationally had caused the Interim Minister of Mines, Industry and Technological Development, Prof Fuh Calistus Gentry, to issue a release on December 29, 2025.

Prof Fuh Calistus then among other explanations wrote that “…discrepancies arise from the challenges of monitoring porous land borders which are largely used by operators”. 

“These borders are also used by operators from neigbouring countries to transport gold to the United Arab Emirates further enhancing discrepancies,” he had added. 

The interim mines minister had also indicated that to address the problem, government would as at January this year close semi-mechanised artisanal gold mining sites “that do not use a closed-loop miniralised gravel processing system”.

Other measures which he mentioned in his December 29, 2025, release included; the strengthening of the financial and technological capacity of SONAMINES “to facilitate the purchase of gold”, institution of remote monitoring systems “through modern technology to control and emphasise on the development of industrial mining”.

Prof Fuh Calistus had also reassured the public that owing to instructions from the Head of State, government is working to make the gold sector “an exceptional source of financial revenue to broaden the tax base and further strengthen the State’s gold reserves”.

The article was first published in The Guardian Post Edition No:3729 of Thursday March 12, 2026