LEGAL FRAMEWORK

The constitution establishes the state as secular, prohibits harassment or discrimination on grounds of religion, and provides for freedom of religion.

The law on freedom of association governs relations between the government and religious groups. The government must approve religious groups or institutions as a prerequisite for lawful operation. Although the law prescribes no specific penalties for operating without official registration, the government may suspend the activities of unregistered groups. The government does not require Indigenous religious groups to register, characterizing the practice of traditional religion as a private concern observed by members of a particular ethnic or kinship group or the residents of a particular locality.

To become a registered entity, a religious group must legally qualify as a religious congregation, defined as “any group of natural persons or corporate bodies whose vocation is divine worship” or “any group of persons living in community in accordance with a religious doctrine.” The entity must submit a request for registration as a religious group and include with it the group’s charter describing planned activities, names and functions of the group’s officials, and a declaration of commitment to comply with the law on freedom of association to the relevant local office. The relevant local office then forwards the documents to the Ministry of Territorial Administration (MINAT).

MINAT reviews the file and sends it to the Presidency with a recommendation to approve or deny. Registration is granted by presidential decree. Official registration confers no general tax benefits but allows religious groups to receive real estate for the conduct of activities as a tax-free gift and to gather publicly and worship. It also permits missionaries for registered groups to receive visas with longer validity than do missionaries for unregistered entities. Unregistered religious groups may gather publicly and worship under a policy of “administrative tolerance” as long as public security and peace are not disturbed. Most unregistered religious groups operate under the umbrella of a registered religious group, adopting that group’s name and submitting to the registered group’s oversight.

MINAT may issue an order to suspend any religious group for “disturbing public order,” although no legislation defines these terms. The President may dissolve any previously authorized religious organization that “deviates from its initial focus.”

The Ministry of Basic Education and the Ministry of Secondary Education require private religious schools to comply with the same curriculum, infrastructure, and teacher-training standards as state-operated schools. Unlike public schools, private schools may offer religious education.

The country is a party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

GOVERNMENT PRACTICES

Abuses Involving Violence, Detention, or Mass Resettlement

Media sources and religious leaders attributed many abuses of religious freedom to the crisis involving predominantly English-speaking separatists in NOSO and the activities of non-state actors in the Far North Region. Because religion, ethnicity, and political ideology are closely linked, it was often difficult to determine whether incidents were primarily motivated by religion.

In January, security forces killed a member of a secret society as he and his colleagues performed traditional rituals during a memorial service in Bambui, Northwest Region. According to media reports, the soldiers fired shots in the air and beat people indiscriminately as they attempted to flee. Frightened members of the secret society threw off their sacred masks, which locals considered a sacrilege, and ran away with the rest of the population. The soldiers removed the mask, traditional attire, and cowries the dead man had been wearing, placed them on his corpse, and took pictures, prompting outrage over what the community viewed as a desecration of their traditional practices.

In April, a security officer fired shots at women exiting the Full Gospel Mission Church building in Mile 4, Nkwen, Northwest Region, after an all-night prayer service. According to the women, after the security officer confronted them and demanded their destination, he accused them of harboring separatists and raised his firearm, saying he would shoot them. The women fled and, according to witnesses who did not leave the church out of fear, he fired three shots in their direction. The incident did not result in any casualties. According to one of the leaders of Full Gospel Mission Mile 4, following the incident, the church suspended all worship sessions between 6:00 pm and 6:00 am. As of year’s end, evening services had resumed, although with limited attendance.

In July, security forces looking for separatists burned down the Mejang Palace, Northwest Region, killing the traditional ruler’s mother. The incident sparked widespread outrage in the Northwest Region where royal palaces are viewed as sacred sites of culture and identity and a link between communities and their ancestors. In a July 10 public statement, Presbyterian Church in Cameroon (PCC) Moderator Samuel Forba Fonki accused the perpetrators of “attacking the gods of the land and of having turned a sacred site into a battlefield.” Fonki said separatists had been using the Mejang Palace as a base after chasing away the traditional ruler and described the attack as evidence that government forces and nonstate armed groups (NSAGs) had no respect for sacred sites.

In August, authorities arrested and detained 12 dissident members of a parish of the Union of Evangelical Churches of Cameroon (UEEC) in Mandjou, East Region. The arrests followed infighting between a group of Christians led by Pastor Timothy Dagba and a dissident group, led by church elder Martin Assoumdai. According to the civil society organization (CSO) Mandela Center International, on August 27, Angele Dizangue, Divisional Officer of Mandjou, led a unit of security officers to evict Assoumdai from the church presbytery and arrested him, his wife, and 10 other dissidents. They remained in detention at the Mandjou Gendarmerie brigade until September 1, when they were referred to the courts and released on bail. According to the Mandela Center, because of pressure from civil society, the courts did not press charges.

In July, security officials at the Gendarmerie brigade at Nkolmesseng, Yaounde interrogated and detained Pastor Zacharias Tanee Ikome of Christian Missionary Fellowship Miracle Center after receiving a complaint about his religious activities. The gendarmes summoned Ikome after his neighbor described his preaching as “perverted” and accused him of corrupting minors. According to media reports, the gendarmes denied Ikome access to his lawyer during his interrogation. Ikome later secured his release from detention under circumstances that remained unclear at year’s end.

Abuses Limiting Religious Belief and Expression

In June, the Menchum Council of Traditional Rulers accused Abdoullahi Aliou, senior divisional officer (SDO) of Menchum, Northwest Region, of violating their sacred customs and traditions by interfering in the enthronement of a new traditional ruler for Esu village. Months after the 2022 murder of the Esu traditional ruler, in a June 8 press release, Aliou asked prospective applicants to submit their candidacies to his office. The Council of Traditional Rulers said royal succession in Menchum was determined solely by sacred rituals and customs and described any influence by the government as a violation of tradition. In a June 17 press conference, the Esu Cultural and Development Association described the SDO’s press release as provocative and sacrilegious and said the Esu people would only enthrone a new leader after receiving a spiritual signal from their ancestors. As of year’s end, the throne in Esu remained unoccupied.

In July, Mfoundi SDO Emmanuel Mariel Djikdent suspended worship services at the Nsimeyong Parish of the Evangelical Church of Cameroon (ECC) in Yaounde. Djikdent cited multiple reasons, including infighting, simultaneous scheduling of rival worship services, and the risk of violent confrontation within ECC Nsimeyong. The suspension took place within the context of a crisis where certain ECC members dissatisfied with the Church’s financial management had attempted to create an independent religious group known as Decentralized Evangelical Church of Cameroon (D-ECC). When D-ECC applied for mandatory registration as a religious body, Minister of Territorial Administration Paul Atanga Nji warned them against sowing confusion by using the identity of the ECC, which the government had previously registered. Atanga Nji later threatened to sanction D-ECC, which he characterized in a press release as “godless and lawless.” Djikdent lifted the suspension after the EEC assigned a new pastor to the parish.

Abuses Involving the Ability of Individuals to Engage in Religious Activities Alone or In Community with Others

As in previous years, there were reports of Jehovah’s Witnesses students being expelled or sanctioned for refusing to sing the national anthem because of their religious convictions. Three court cases from previous years on this issue remained pending in the Supreme Court. The problem affected hundreds of students in the country. Teachers and school administrators refused to accommodate Jehovah’s Witnesses minors who objected to singing the national anthem (and taking part in other patriotic ceremonies) in school. In some cases, students identified as Jehovah’s Witnesses by their teachers were forced to stand in front of the class and sing the national anthem alone. While some schools granted accommodations, the group’s representatives stated they did not obtain the type of broad relief that a policy or Ministry-level decision would provide, despite high-level meetings with the Prime Minister’s office and MINAT. Jehovah’s Witnesses representatives reported generally excellent relations with the government except for this issue.

The government took no action to adjudicate registration applications by several religious groups that had been pending for years. The government had approved only one new religious group in the previous 14 years and none since 2020. Although by law groups must register, the government continued to allow hundreds of unregistered small religious groups to operate under a policy of “administrative tolerance,” often under the name and oversight of registered religious groups. According to one evangelical pastor, some registered churches, including those that no longer had an active congregation of their own, marketed their licenses to their unregistered counterparts for a fee. He said this phenomenon empowered registered churches to sometimes impose restrictions on the religious practices of unregistered groups. Restrictions were sometimes based on theological differences, and other times, based on perceived profiteering from religion, including selling holy water and holy stones. According to one umbrella organization representing Muslims, the government’s insistence on registration was mainly aimed at preventing faith-based organizations from receiving foreign assistance without supervision. He also said the registration process was often delayed due to lengthy background checks. The result was that older, more established religious groups had more freedom to practice than newer, primarily independent evangelical churches. Despite the state’s administrative tolerance, unregistered status had practical consequences, including making it impossible for unregistered churches to open bank accounts in their own name.

The government continued to grant broad legal authority to traditional leaders to manage their districts. As part of this authority, traditional leaders continued to exercise control over local mosques, with the right to appoint or dismiss imams. Traditional leaders did not have this same authority over the appointment or dismissal of other religious figures.

State-sponsored radio stations and the sole state-sponsored television station continued to broadcast Christian and Islamic religious services and ceremonies regularly on national holidays and during national events. Government ministers and other officials often attended these ceremonies.

The government provided an annual subsidy to all private primary and secondary education institutions, including religious schools. The size of the subsidy was proportional to the size of the student body.

In January, Catholic, Protestant, and Muslim leaders issued a public statement welcoming the Canadian government’s announcement that it would assist in mediation between the Cameroonian government and NOSO separatists, urging believers of all religions to pray for peace in the two regions. The government, however, denied it had agreed to participate in mediation and the talks never occurred.

ACTIONS BY FOREIGN FORCES AND NONSTATE ACTORS

Boko Haram and ISIS-WA continued to commit terrorist acts in the Far North Region in what observers said was an attempt to impose their religious and political beliefs. Boko Haram and ISIS-WA continued to target Muslims, Christians, and traditionalist believers without apparent distinction. According to NGO International Crisis Group, as of September, Boko Haram and ISIS-WA had killed approximately 3,000 persons in the Far North Region and forced the displacement of another 250,000 since Boko Haram attacks began in 2014.

In 2023, the Christian advocacy and charitable organization Open Doors International, whose mission is to support Christians it considers persecuted, identified acts of violence by Islamic extremist and terrorist groups as the leading driver of Christian persecution in Cameroon. They said Christian women faced the danger of abduction by Boko Haram and ISIS-WA. According to Open Doors International, Boko Haram and ISIS-WA disrupted or hindered worship activities and their attacks displaced hundreds of thousands of individuals, which prevented the normal functioning of churches in the Far North Region. The organization also reported that owning Christian literature, such as Bibles, could elicit threats and violence, forcing many Christians to practice their faith clandestinely.

In August, ISIS-WA terrorists killed eight fishermen on the island of Darak in Lake Chad. According to media reports, ISIS-WA had taken advantage of the limited presence of security forces and government authorities to establish a firm presence in the area and used that presence to carry out attacks against those who opposed their ideology, including Christians.

According to media reports, in June, during the feast of Eid al-Adha, ISIS-WA terrorists kidnapped 13 individuals, including women and children, in Mordas in the Far North Region and took them to their base in the Lake Chad Basin. The fate of these kidnap victims was unknown at year’s end.

According to media sources, in May, former Boko Haram captive, Ibrahim Ngaroua, who escaped during the year after being held prisoner with his family for several years, told students of the Yaounde-based Heritage Higher Institute of Peace and Development Studies that the terrorists forced all their captives to read the Quran and publicly flogged anyone for wrongdoing. Ngaroua said the terrorists separated the women from the men, forced the women to wear burqas, and used them as sex slaves.

According to the Cameroon Association for Bible Translation and Literacy (CABTAL), in March, unidentified individuals kidnapped and killed Bible translator William Gemuh Wuwih in Mfumte, Northwest Region. Wuwih had been supervising Bible translation into the Mfumte cluster of languages. His assailants kidnapped him on March 17 as he returned home. CABTAL attributed Wuwih’s killing to the violence between separatists and government forces in NOSO, which posed dangers to Bible translators.

In September, unidentified gunmen shot Catholic priest and Mill Hill Missionary Elvis Mbangsi multiple times at a primary school within St. Martin of Tour’s Kembong Parish in Mamfe Diocese, Southwest Region. The Mamfe Diocese communications director said four gunmen entered the school on motorbikes and targeted Mbangsi. After identifying him when he emerged from the parish house, they forced him to sit on the ground alongside three teachers and shot him four times in the limbs. The assailants shot each of the three teachers twice in the legs. According to the Association for Catholic Information in Africa, the incident happened after several attacks by NSAGs targeting clergy in other parishes. In October, a Full Gospel Mission pastor said NSAGs regularly attacked clergy for criticizing their actions.

In September, suspected separatists kidnapped several Catholic priests in Bamessing, Northwest Region. The priests were returning to their parishes within Kumbo Diocese in the Northwest Region after participating in a religious activity at the Archdiocese of Bamenda. According to Daniel Ache, a priest and Coordinator of Caritas Kumbo, the separatists released the priests on the same day after holding them captive for several hours. The circumstances of their release remained unclear at year’s end. In October, a Yaounde-based evangelical pastor said NSAGs often kidnapped clergy because they believed their followers would readily pay exorbitant ransoms.

In May, suspected separatists interrupted a Sunday service at Word of Life and Transformation Ministry in Munyenge, Southwest Region and assaulted worshippers. According to media sources, the separatists entered the church during the sermon and ordered all the worshipers to lie on the floor, after which the separatists beat them. Media sites featured pictures of worshipers with multiple lacerations on their backs and limbs after the incident. The worshipers stated they believed they were targeted because they refused to live among the separatists in the forest to help shield them from military attacks.

Violence between government forces and separatists in NOSO continued to limit freedom of worship. In multiple instances, Christians reported they could not attend Sunday worship services because of lockdowns imposed by separatists. For example, according to a Bamenda-based Catholic priest, many worship services were either canceled or sparsely attended on Sunday, March 12, after separatists imposed a lockdown that they announced was intended to disrupt elections. According to NGO Rural Women Center for Education and Development), regular gunfire exchanges between separatists and the military, numerous checkpoints, and illegal patrols by separatists limited participation in worship services. Fear of separatist interference regularly compelled Muslims in Bamenda to request heightened security at major mosques in the town during worship services on religious feast days. In October, a pastor of the Full Gospel Mission said many churches had closed and numerous members of the clergy had fled because of violence in NOSO.

In July, separatists occupied the premises of the PCC in Baba I, Northwest Region, and disrupted worship services for a two-week period. The pastor, who was absent when the separatists arrived, did not return during that period, and parishioners suspended all worship services and other activities at the church. Worship services resumed after the separatists departed and the pastor returned.