Political leaders, State officials boycott Anicet Ekane’s funeral.

Ekane was laid to rest Saturday, May 9, in his native Bomono, Dimbombari Subdivision, Moungo Division of the Littoral Region. Only a handful of civil society leaders and political actors answered present. 

A majority of those who had been expected to join his kith and kin in giving Ekane a burial befitting of his influence on the political chessboard were nowhere to be found.

His corpse was coffined at the Douala Laquintinie Hospital, ferried to the MANIDEM headquarters in Akwa for honnours. Before being committed to mother earth, Ekane was later transported to Bomono where activities in his honour took place on the esplanade of the locality’s government primary school.

It was an emotional atmosphere punctuated with huge traditional displays and speeches from members of the civil society and the political class. 

Speaker after speaker at the funeral recalled Ekane’s unwavering commitment to his convictions and resilience for decades on the country’s political landscape.

Barrister Alice Nkom delivered a speech on behalf of Issa Tchiroma Bakary, FSNC candidate at the 2025 election who enjoyed huge support from the Union for Change platform to which Ekane was a major actor.

Barrister Nkom said Ekane will be remembered for working through the Union for Change to ensure that Cameroonians get “veritable change” in leadership. 

Nkom hailed Ekane’s political doggedness and attachment to push for changes in the interest of the population.

Cyril Sam Mbaka, leader of the Alliance of Progressive Forces, APF, stated that Ekane was a politician who had no tribe except the nation Cameroon. 

Mbaka urged Cameroonians to learn from Ekane’s life that the country is above everyone and must be constructed inclusively.

Henriette Ekwe on her part told reporters that Ekane returned to his Creator as a nationalist and revolutionary who fought till the end. 

Ekwe said the MANIDEM leader was a man who never gave up irrespective of what he faced throughout his political and activism careers.

Beyond the few faces that made it to Bomono, one of the key absences was that of Prof Maurice Kamto, leader of the Cameroonian Renaissance Movement, MRC. 

Ekane had through MANIDEM first supported Kamto’s candidacy for the October 12, 2025 presidential election.

When the Electoral Board of Elections Cameroon, ELECAM, and the Constitutional Council, rejected the candidacy, Ekane and others threw their weight behind Tchiroma. 

The former minister eventually emerged second in the election with over 35 percent of votes cast according to the Constitutional Council.

Ekane and the Union for Change later issued a statement claiming Tchiroma had won the election. Days later, he was arrested alongside Djeukam Tchameni. Ekane died in a detention facility in Yaounde on December 1, 2025.

Difficult road to burial 

The road to his interment was marked several twists and turns. First, judicial authorities had confiscated the corpse pending investigations into his death. The Ministry of Defence later communicated that he died of natural cause based on investigations.

The corpse was eventually released to the family. Yet weeks after, trouble erupted between Ekane’s widow, his children and members of the MANIDEM over the organisation of his funeral. His sons later sued his widow, Ekane Sogue Jeanne-Edwige at the Douala Court of First Instance.

The Court later ruled authorising one of the deceased’s sons, Muna Ekane as the rightful person to organise his funeral. This was on April 13. 

Yet weeks after some of Ekane’s brothers and sisters announced a boycott of the funeral. The leadership of MANIDEM also made similar pronouncements yet a handful of the party’s members were spotted at the burial of Ekane.

This article was first published in The Guardian Post Edition No:3787 of Tuesday May 12, 2026