Femicide in Cameroon: The law is not the problem; the failure to use it, is!.

In June 2026, the Minister of Women's Empowerment and the Family told the National Assembly that more than 50 cases of femicide had been officially recorded between January and April 2026. The figure is staggering. It is also a warning that should not be buried beneath another cycle of public outrage and social media commentary.

The question confronting Cameroon is therefore no longer simply: Why are women being killed? It is this: Why are we failing to prevent them from being killed?

There is an even more uncomfortable legal question: Do we really need another law, or do we need to enforce the laws we already have? The uncomfortable truth: Cameroon already criminalizes murder.

The current debate about femicide often proceeds as though the principal problem is a legal vacuum. It is not. Cameroon already has a Penal Code that criminalizes the intentional killing of another person. 

Sections 275 and 276 provide severe sanctions for murder and aggravated forms of murder. The law therefore already sends an unmistakable message: human life is protected, and deliberately taking it attracts the most serious consequences known to criminal law.

This is why the current crisis demands more than another legislative announcement. If a man deliberately kills a woman today, does he need a new statute to understand that what he has done is a grave crime? Does he need to be told that killing another human being is punishable? 

The answer is no. Does the potential murderer really distinguish between killing under Section 275 and killing under a future "femicide law"? Of course not. The criminal already knows that murder is wrong. The critical question is whether the State has created sufficient certainty that the murderer will be identified, arrested, prosecuted, and punished. That is the real deterrence question.

A law that is not enforced is only a declaration 

There is an important distinction between the existence of law and the effectiveness of law. A statute can be beautifully drafted and still fail the woman it was intended to protect. The real strength of criminal law does not lie merely in the severity of the punishment written in the books. It lies in the credibility of the entire chain of justice: report, investigation, arrest, prosecution, trial, conviction, sentence, enforcement. If that chain breaks at any point, deterrence is weakened. 

A potential offender may not be frightened by the maximum sentence prescribed by law if he believes that the probability of being caught and successfully prosecuted is remote.

This is the point that Cameroon must confront honestly. We have spent considerable energy discussing what new law should be enacted. Perhaps we should spend equal energy asking one central question that tells the whole story: Why are existing laws not producing the protection they were designed to provide? 

The state has a duty beyond punishment 

The responsibility of the State begins long before a murder reaches the courtroom. A woman who has been threatened repeatedly is not yet a homicide statistic. A woman who has suffered repeated domestic violence is not yet a homicide statistic. A woman whose partner has threatened to kill her is not yet a homicide statistic. A woman who has reported violence to the authorities is not yet a homicide statistic.

These are moments when the machinery of the State has an opportunity to intervene. This is where policing, prosecution, social services, and the courts become instruments of prevention rather than merely instruments of punishment. 

Cameroon has already established mechanisms intended to facilitate reporting and intervention in cases of gender-based violence. The problem, therefore, is increasingly one of implementation and institutional capacity.

Should Cameroon enact a specific femicide law? Yes, But Let Us Be Clear About What It Can Achieve There is nothing inherently wrong with creating a specific legal framework for femicide. 

Indeed, it may serve an important purpose. It can formally recognize that some killings of women are connected to gender, intimate-partner violence, coercive control, misogyny, sexual violence, or other gender-related circumstances. 

It can improve data collection. It can strengthen investigative protocols. It can create specialized mechanisms for prevention and protection. It can send a powerful symbolic message about the value the State places on women's lives.

But a new offence will not, by itself, stop a determined murderer. The law cannot protect a woman merely by existing. It must be known. It must be accessible. It must be enforced. And institutions must have the capacity and will to act. 

Otherwise, we will simply add another powerful-looking provision to a legal system whose existing provisions are already struggling to translate themselves into effective protection.

The Criminal Justice System Must Become More Intelligent, Not Merely More Punitive There is a tendency, whenever society is horrified by a crime, to demand harsher punishment. 

That reaction is understandable. But criminal justice requires something more sophisticated than anger. It requires evidence, investigation, forensic capacity, risk assessment, prosecution, and judicial discipline.

Courts must examine these cases with exceptional seriousness while maintaining the fundamental guarantees of criminal justice. The accused must enjoy the presumption of innocence and the right to a fair trial.

But where guilt is established beyond the applicable legal standard, the courts must not trivialize the crime. The sentence must communicate two things simultaneously: first, that the victim's life mattered; second, that the State will not tolerate deliberate violence against human life. Punishment is therefore not vengeance. 

It is an expression of the authority of the law. The criminal law asks an important question: Who committed the crime and what responsibility does that person bear? Public policy must ask another: What could have been done before the crime occurred? We need both questions.

The law should be used before the body is found

This may be the most important lesson of all. Criminal justice in Cameroon must become more preventive. If there are repeated threats, investigate them. If there is serious domestic violence, document it. If a woman reports that her partner has threatened her life, treat that report as potentially serious. 

If there are restraining or protective mechanisms available under applicable law, use them effectively. If neighbors and relatives repeatedly report violent behavior, do not automatically dismiss it as a private family matter. 

Domestic violence is not always a private matter. Sometimes it is the first chapter of a homicide investigation that has not yet happened. The State must learn to recognize warning signs.

The constitution, not merely gender policy, is at stake 

The protection of women should not be presented merely as a concession to women's rights advocates. It is fundamentally a question of the protection of human life, human dignity, and physical integrity. 

The judiciary must send a message, But Parliament must also listen. There is a legitimate role for Parliament in examining whether the existing legal framework adequately captures the gendered dimensions of violence against women. But Parliament must resist the temptation to measure legislative success by the number of laws enacted. A country can have hundreds of laws and still have weak justice.

What Cameroon needs is effective law. That means adequate investigative resources, forensic capacity, competent prosecution, trained investigators, accessible legal assistance, protection for witnesses and victims, reliable statistics, specialized judicial understanding, and above all, institutional accountability. 

A new law must come with the machinery necessary to enforce it. Otherwise, we will have created another legal monument that women cannot reach when they are in danger.

Cameroon does not need a law-and-order illusion. We must stop confusing legislative activity with justice. Justice is not the number of laws passed. Justice is not the number of ministers who condemn a crime. Justice is not the number of press conferences held after a woman is murdered. Justice is the capacity of the State to make the law real. If Cameroon eventually adopts a specific law on femicide, let it be a good law. But let us remember: a new law will not save women if the old laws remain unenforced. The purpose of criminal law is not simply to punish yesterday's murderer. It is also to warn tomorrow's murderer. The message must be unmistakable: You will be found. You will be prosecuted. nd if your guilt is established, the law will punish you.

Today, we see many women in red calling for an end to femicide. Yet one cannot ignore the impression that, for some elite women, the campaign may be serving more as a platform for visibility and positioning than as an expression of genuine solidarity with the victims and their families. 

Understandably so because, the silent majority of women who live with the fear and reality of gender-based violence remain largely unheard. Beyond symbolic displays, what is urgently needed is a justice system that investigates, prosecutes and sanctions perpetrators effectively. The real measure of solidarity is not the colour we wear, but the justice we demand and the lives we succeed in protecting. 

The question women must now answer is, "What are we going to do differently with the laws we already have?" Until we answer that question honestly, another woman will die, another family will mourn, another investigation will begin, and another national conversation and red flagged women will temporarily erupt.

By Moses Nyoh: He is health & environmental communication specialist 

This article was first published in The Guardian Post Edition No:3896 of Tuesday September 01, 2026