National Gendarmerie cracks down on social media crime apologists.

During a press briefing in the premises of the National Gendarmerie in the Camp Yayap neighbourhood of Yaounde, Monday April 6, Captain Otele Etoundi, of Central Service for Judicial Research at National Gendarmerie, who led the investigation team, told journalists that between March 27 and April 3, security forces uncovered a crime scene where an eleven-year-old girl, whose name he gave simply as Divine, was raped and eventually murdered in cold blood by an adult, who knew the child very well.

The 11-year-old left her family home to join a male classmate of the same age, living with his father not far away from the girl´s family home. 

While they studied together up to about 11 p.m., the boy left the girl with his father. While the boy was loitering outside, the father to her classmate pounced on the child and sexually molested her. 

He did not only end at the sexual assault, but in his attempt to hide the evidence, the man twisted the child´s neck, suffocating her to death.

After missing his daughter late into the night, the mother raised alarm and reported the loss of her 11-year-old daughter to the police. 

Investigation was carried out over a period of four days before the remains of the child were discovered in an abandoned building, already in an advanced stage of decomposition.

According to the Gendarmerie officer, as the horrible news spread on social media, that was when Abega Fosteng, on his chat asked why the child was allowed to stay out so late. 

By that question, the security services blamed Abega for putting the blame on a child and insinuating that the child was wayward, and went to that house purposely for a sexual encounter with the man she knew very well.

That was where Abega ignited the ire of the security services and the Gendarmerie launched a manhunt after him. Abega was intercepted at Lobo and whisked to Yaounde to answer for his crime of being an apologist to crime, especially when the crime was committed by an adult on a minor. 

According to the officer, Divine, the victim, knew the father of her male classmate very well and did not suspect that she could be molested and even killed by someone who was supposed to be protective of her.

To deter social media users from resorting to posting crime apologetic comments, Captain Etoundi announced that punishment for the crime has now been moved from one year to 5 years imprisonment if found guilty, while the financial charge has been moved from a modest 20,000 FCFA, to 20 million FCFA.

Meanwhile, Abega told journalists that his comments were not meant to belittle the crime, especially when the child paid the ultimate price. Rather, he said it was a call on parents to exercise greater vigilance over their children, especially girls of adolescent age.

Abega said he was shocked at how fast his comments spread all over the world, giving the impression, to his shock and embarrassment, that he [Abega Fosteng] was also capable of, not only raping, but killing a vulnerable minor left in his hands, rather than protecting the child.

Abega said even the verbal attacks directed at him both on social media and in real life, were capable of making him sick. 

This article was first published in The Guardian Post Edition No:3754 of Wednesday April 08, 2026