Jean Marc Mpay, Cameroon’s former ambassador to the Federal Republic of Germany, has died aged 78.

Jean Marc Mpay’s death was confirmed by the Cameroon embassy in Berlin following media reports which claimed he had suffered a stroke while in Yaoundé, the nation’s capital.

Paying tribute, Chief Ashu Peter Ashman former CPDM Sub Section president for Wuppertal said: “He was a great diplomat and a great character.”

“All our thoughts are with his family,” Chief Ashu Peter added.

Ambassador Jean-Marc Mpay was born on 21 July 1945. He completed studies in Law and Economics at the University of Yaoundé and post-graduate studies in Political Science in Ottawa, where he also served from 1977 to 1981 at the Embassy of Cameroon.

From 1991 to 1998, he was Cameroon’s First Embassy Counsellor and later Envoy-Embassy Counsellor at the Permanent Mission of the Republic of Cameroon to the United Nations in New York.

Ambassador Jean-Marc Mpay was nominated ambassador of the Republic of Cameroon in Berlin on February 2008 as successor of Jean Melaga, who served for 24 years as Cameroon’s chief diplomat in both Bonn and Berlin.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai in Essen, Germany