Concerns about crime among the diplomatic community in Yaoundé have grown after Anatoly Bashkin Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Russian Federation was assaulted on the 9^th of September. Unconfirmed report says the Russian diplomat was attacked by 2 armed men and beaten up during a walk at the Mont Fébé hotel lane.

We gathered that the head of the Russian diplomatic mission was held up at gunpoint by a gang in an incident that has tarnished Yaoundé’s name within the diplomatic community.  A French Cameroun political elite who spoke to us recently wondered aloud why former governor Bell Luc Rene was sacked from his post as Delegate General for National Security after an attack on the US ambassador and Martin Mbarga Nguele is still on the job.   “There have been a number of attacks, but this seems to have been one of the worst” noted a highly placed government official from the Far North region.

A Chadian diplomat told Cameroon Intelligence Report that “None of us now feel safe in Yaoundé and we want to leave,” he said. Cameroon government spokesman, Issa Tchiroma Bakary who also moonlights as Minister of Communication was quoted as saying that the police were winning the fight against criminals targeting diplomats.

The Russian embassy has expressed the hope that the Cameroonian authorities will do their utmost to find the perpetrators, as well as strengthen the security of the diplomatic missions and their employees. In recent months, Yaoundé the nation’s capital deemed calm and peaceful now knows a rise in urban insecurity.

By Rita Akana