Cameroon gold smuggling scandal: lawyer Sikati accuses ministers of deception

Government response to gold smuggling allegations

During a July 15, 2026 press briefing in Yaoundé, Cameroon’s interim Minister of Mines, Calistus Fuh Gentry, firmly denied claims of gold belonging to the Cameroonian state having disappeared or been stolen. The briefing, held alongside Communication Minister René Emmanuel Sadi, aimed to dispel concerns raised by reports of a 2,000 billion FCFA tax shortfall.

The government attributes this situation not to embezzlement of public funds but to widespread underreporting by private operators. Mining companies, it states, are systematically underdeclaring the volume of gold they extract.

Scale of gold smuggling revealed

State revenues from synthetic mining taxes and export duties have plummeted. The Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) reported a staggering discrepancy for 2023: Cameroon officially exported just 22 kg of gold, while UAE customs recorded 15 metric tons of Cameroonian gold entering the country.

The National Mining Company (Sonamines) estimates that around 44 metric tons of gold have bypassed formal channels between 2021 and 2025. To combat this smuggling and clean up the gold sector, Minister Fuh Gentry announced immediate reforms, including the deployment of a permanent joint task force comprising Sonamines, the General Tax Directorate (DGI), and the General Directorate of Customs (DGD).

This team will conduct on-site inspections of production sites and audit declared quantities against actual outputs. Additionally, the government plans to hire an international expert to assess the true potential of gold deposits and implement independent minimum taxation, separate from operators’ declarations.

Lawyer Sikati’s explosive response

Désiré Sikati, legal advisor and MRC party member, delivered a blistering critique of the government’s position, questioning the integrity of those in power:

“SOME CAMEROONIAN MINISTERS ARE TRUE MAGICIANS”

Cameroon’s Minister of Mines is Calistus Fuh. He was appointed after his predecessor, Gabriel Dodo Ndoke, died under suspicious circumstances that remain unresolved.

During yesterday’s press conference, Minister Fuh declared, ‘There has been no disappearance of gold belonging to the state.’

Yet the gold smuggling scandal continues to dominate headlines both locally and internationally.

Let’s be clear: the minister never claimed that no gold disappeared at all. Instead, he implied that none of the gold belonging to the Cameroonian state has vanished.

This leads me to ask: To whom, then, does all the missing gold belong?

I remind everyone that under Cameroon’s mining code, all subsoil minerals—including gold—belong to the Cameroonian state.

Perhaps the minister and his colleagues operate under the delusion that despite clear legal provisions, this gold belongs to private individuals. In reality, they serve not Cameroon, but their own interests.