It is no longer a scandal. It is a planetary heist. In just four years, 44 tonnes of gold extracted from Cameroon’s subsoil vanished from official statistics, only to reappear under the blazing sun of Dubai. Meanwhile, the Cameroonian state—either complicit or powerless—officially recorded the export of a mere 148 kilograms. Behind this statistical black hole lies an organized plundering, methodical dispossession, and an impunity that defies reason.
The revelation is brutal. It comes from the Director General of the National Mining Corporation (SONAMINES), a guest on the CRTV program Actualités Hebdo. Without hesitation or ambiguity, he denounced what many had suspected but no one had formally established: the abyssal gap between declared gold exports in Cameroon and the quantities received in the United Arab Emirates.
The figures are staggering: 44 tonnes of gold versus 148 kilograms. A ratio of nearly 300 to 1. Such a discrepancy cannot be explained by data entry errors or simple traceability flaws. It is the signature of a parallel system for siphoning off national wealth.
2,000 billion CFA francs in losses: what Cameroon could have built
Let’s do the math, as simple as it is damning. With gold priced at around 45 billion CFA francs per tonne, the missing 44 tonnes represent an estimated market value of about 2,000 billion CFA francs.
Two thousand billion.
With this sum, Cameroon could have:
- Built hundreds of reference hospitals in every region,
- Paved the entire secondary and tertiary road network,
- Funded free and complete schooling for all children up to high school,
- Equipped every district headquarters with clean water and electricity.
But instead, this colossal fortune ended up in the secured vaults of Dubai’s free zones, offshore accounts in tax havens, and the lavish lifestyles of a handful of unscrupulous actors.
Meanwhile, in the gold-rich eastern regions of Cameroon, artisanal miners struggle to feed their families. The gold they extract does not benefit them—it benefits others.
The masks are falling: high officials and regime power brokers under scrutiny
The major force of this case is that anonymity no longer exists. Behind the gold evacuation mechanism toward Dubai, names are beginning to circulate—names not easily spoken in national media, protected by state nepotism.
According to consistent sources, several high-ranking regime officials are among the beneficiaries or facilitators of this opaque system. Alongside them are public figures well connected within the corridors of power, and businesspeople with international ties.
The mechanism is well established: gold is extracted artisanally or semi-industrially in the East, sometimes under conditions close to forced labor. It passes through private buying offices, often holding purchase declaration receipts. But once across the border, declarations are adjusted downward, quantities shrink, and traceability disappears.
Upon arrival in Dubai, a global gold trading hub, the goods are fully received. No one questions their true origin.
Falsified customs declarations: a mass economic crime
What SONAMINES is revealing is the existence of a dual national gold accounting system. One official, intended for international organizations and Cameroonian taxpayers: 148 kilograms exported in four years. And the real one, circulating in parallel networks: 44 tonnes.
This means that every day for four years, trucks, off-road vehicles, or individuals crossed border posts carrying undeclared or fraudulently under-declared gold. Did customs officers look the other way? Were they bribed? Were they acting on orders from above? These are all questions that demand answers.
The Director General of SONAMINES has had the courage to put the issue on the table. Now the question is whether the hierarchy, up to the highest level of the state, will have the will to resolve it.
Plundering the East to enrich a handful of untouchables
Beyond the figures and mechanisms lies a harsh human reality. Communities in eastern Cameroon live on an El Dorado they never see. Cameroonian gold does not benefit Cameroonians.
It is used to buy apartments in Dubai, Swiss bank accounts, luxury cars in Beirut or Paris. It fuels a global laundering system in which African producing countries are systematically dispossessed.
This is not simply embezzlement. It is the industrial-scale plundering of an entire nation. And this plundering has faces, names, and positions. It is time for justice to identify them and bring them to trial.
A call for civic uprising and judicial accountability
Cameroonians have the right to know. They have the right to know the names of those who orchestrated this 2,000 billion CFA franc heist. They have the right to demand that customs services, tax authorities, and ministerial offices be purged of corrupt elements.
SONAMINES has done its duty by raising the alarm. Now it is up to Parliament, the State Audit Office, and the Presidency of the Republic to respond. An independent investigative commission must be urgently established. Customs and gold purchasing offices must be placed under international oversight.
And if the system protects its power brokers, then the Cameroonian people—through their representatives, civil society, and a free press—must themselves bring light into these shadows.
Cameroon’s gold must benefit Cameroonians. Not offshore vaults. Not corrupt ministers. Not profiteering generals. Not unscrupulous businessmen.
2,000 billion CFA francs. That is the price of silence. It is also the measure of the rising anger. Let the predators take note: a dispossessed people always ends up rising.
