The Cameroonian journalist Arsène Salomon Mbani Zogo, who was killed in January, was probably the victim of a power struggle over the succession of the elderly President Paul Biya (90). This is the conclusion of the Network of African Investigative Reporters and Editors (NAIRE) and the multimedia platform ZAMbased in Amsterdam.
Martinez Zogo investigated corruption by the influential Cameroonian media mogul Jean-Pierre Amougou Belinga. He drew from a file on Belinga full of bank statements, payment instructions, and tables of tens of millions of dollars printed by government printers. He talked about his research during his radio program on Amplitude FM.
Shortly after his revelations, Zogo was kidnapped in broad daylight in front of a gendarmerie station. Five days later he was found dead just outside the capital, Yaoundé. His tongue was mutilated and fingers chopped off. Belinga, who considered herself a possible successor to Biya, was arrested following the murder and has been in prison ever since.
A brutal murder of a journalist who exposed corruption
Larger amounts
NAIRE and ZAM journalists in the Arizona Project continued Zogo’s investigation and uncovered a large number of new corruption cases. This often involved much larger amounts than Belinga would have stolen. They suspect that Zogo has been used by other possible candidates for Biya’s succession to neutralize their competitor Belinga.
Zogo investigated corruption by influential Cameroonian media mogul Jean-Pierre Amougou Belinga
The Arizona Project transaction list shows more than $600 million in unreported payments from the state treasury to dubious companies and individuals. Director-General of the Treasury Department, Mopa Modeste Fatoing, who pushed for an investigation into these payments, was removed from office shortly after Zogo’s assassination by President Biya, who put him forward for a position at the IMF in Washington.
“Behind Biya is an advanced political machine,” opposition politician Kah Walla told investigative journalists. “Biya, old or not, is a master of violence. He uses irrational violence, […] without reason and without logic. Everyone is scared.”
Media suppression
Walla is convinced that in the Zogo case a “clan in power wanted to use the murder to sideline opponents. According to the collective, most journalists in Cameroon therefore stay away from sensitive subjects, especially when powerful people are involved.
NAIRE and ZAM emphasize that Cameroon is not the only African country facing increasing media and civil society repression.
In the same week that Martinez Zogo’s body was found, a journalist in Rwanda and a human rights lawyer in Eswatini were murdered. In 2019, journalist Ahmed Hussein-Suale was shot dead in Ghana. Ghanaian politician Kennedy Agyapong, who called for violent action against Suale, is now a presidential candidate in next year’s elections. According to the NGO Reporters Without Borders press freedom is deteriorating across the continent. Arizona Project journalists are particularly concerned about the impunity of the attacks.