Ngarbuh massacre: Judiciary needs urgent reforms.

The Guardian Post is highlighting just two cases, which are now in the national and international news focus. 

The first is the notorious Ngarbuh massacre, which occurred in a neighbourhood in Ntumbaw village, Ndu Subdivision, Donga Mantung Division of the North West Region; more than five years ago. That was on February 14, 2020.

On that ill-fated day, conflicting reports emerged that 21 civilians had been killed, including 13 children and one pregnant woman. Other reports stated that at least 22 people were killed, including 14 children, nine of whom were younger than five years old.

The Cameroonian government initially denied responsibility, but as more evidence was exposed, it was clear that the military had carried out the atrocities.

Several weeks prior to the massacre, it was alleged that members of the army had set up a monitoring station in Ntumbaw, which the government later admitted that the Army had been responsible for the deaths, but claimed civilians were killed by an accidental explosion that had been triggered when stray bullets hit a fuel tank during an exchange of gunfire with separatists.

Opposition parties and aid agencies rejected government’s narrative and accused the army of carrying out a massacre of civilians. Local residents said 35 people were killed by the army who broke into houses, shot civilians and burnt some houses.

Yaounde continued to insist that only five civilians had been killed, although independent sources were able to verify the names of 25 dead civilians a day after the attack.

In a desperate attempt to cover up the details of the incident, soldiers arrested a man who had given information about the Ngarbuh massacre to the media. An alleged eyewitness to the massacre was murdered. Human Rights Watch ran an investigation, interviewing 23 people, three of whom witnessed the attack.

The investigation debunked the claims made by the government and established that soldiers and armed Fulani vigilante groups had carried out the massacre of civilians.

Human Rights Watch also confirmed that there had been no separatist fighters present during the massacre. Yaounde responded to the report by accusing the author of conspiring with the separatists to create false stories.

But when the evidence became overwhelming, sustained and coupled with national and international pressure, President Biya ordered an investigation, which led to the arrest of some army suspects.

The Yaounde Military Court, presided by Justice Yvonne Léopoldine Akoa, on Thursday January 15, 2026, found four members of the defence and security forces involved - Baba Guida, Cyrille Sanding Sanding, Gilbert Haranga, and Maxwell Tita Ndor, guilty of murder, arson, destruction and violence against a pregnant woman, and disobeying orders of military hierarchy. The ruling came over five years after they committed the heinous crimes.

The second incident is that of the 10 leaders of their dream "Federal Republic of Ambazonia", led by Sisiku Ayuk Tabe.

A Yaounde Military Court in 2019, after they had been detained a year earlier, sentenced them to life imprisonment in an overnight court session, which started on Monday, August 19 and ended in the early hours of Tuesday, August 20, 2019.

They were also fined 250 billion FCFA for offences, which included insurrection. One of their defense lawyers, Barrister Ayukotang Ndep Nkongho, had described the ruling as “the most scandalous judicial proceeding in world history”.  

They filed an appeal to the Supreme Court. It is this week, more than eight years later, that the apex court has started to hear the appeal. 

Isn't that justice delayed? What will happen, if after so many years in detention, they turn out to be "prisoners without a crime," to borrow from the late Albert Mukong, a prominent human rights advocate of blessed memory?

Truth be told, the judges are not to blame for the delay, but the executive realm of State.

Constitutionally, the judiciary is free but are the appointments, promotion, and sanction for corrupt magistrates not the responsibility of the Higher Judiciary Council, chaired by the Head of State and assisted by the Minister of Justice?

Now that for over five years new magistrates have not been appointed, and the old ones are too tired to be efficient, has that not greatly contributed to an overload of work, causing long years for cases to be examined?

That is why there is the urgent need to reform the judiciary system, by creating a Judicial Commission, answerable to parliament, rather to an executive, which could make it subservient to Unity Palace, which will not be the case if it was answerable to a parliamentary commission.

Without such reforms, the courts will continue to be crushed by an overload of cases, causing long delays and congested prisons as signs of injustices, which in the words of Martin Luther King "is a threat to justice everywhere". 

This article was first published in The Guardian Post Edition No:3679 of Tuesday January 20, 2026