Since his arrival as the Metropolitan Archbishop in the capital of East region, Joseph Atanga has buried 11 priests. This unprecedented fracas is reportedly worrying the Roman Catholic Church in Cameroon. Cameroon Intelligence Report gathered that a climate of fear seems to have replaced the Holy Spirit in the Archdiocese of Bertoua.  On the night of the 18^th to 19^th of March 2017, Rev. Father Ambroise Ogbonna of the St. Monique de Bouli parish died at the University Hospital Center in Yaoundé after a brief illness. He was 46 years old and was the 11th priest in the region to go home to rest.

The situation is provoking a lot of under-the-table talk in the East region and even beyond with many Christians even wondering aloud about the identity of the next abbot who could lose his life.  Part of the Bertoua body of religious worshipers were quoted as saying that it could be a kind of bad luck befallen clergies in the Bertoua Archdiocese with others saying the priests have been hit had by a hidden HIV/Aids epidemic. Nevertheless, in his recent homily, Archbishop Joseph Atanga invited the priests and the faithful to live a peaceful life without rancor or quarrel.

Last week, French television channel, France 24, aired a documentary in which the Archbishop of Bertoua was accused of having covered many acts of pedophilia of certain priests in his Archdiocese. In addition to the pedophilia scandals that have tarnished considerably the image of these “pious” men, some of them seem to be plunged into much more complicated matters including flirting with the ruling CPDM crime syndicate and getting relatives appointed into high positions of authority.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai