By Tata Mbunwe
At least 73 women in Cameroon have been killed in femicide cases recorded between January and September 2026, according to data from the Ministry of Women’s Empowerment and the Family cited by state media.
This means an average of two women are killed every week due to circumstances that pertain to their being a woman.
These are not just mere figures but the lives of mothers, sisters, daughters, friends and community members lost in the most painful circumstances.
Take Diane Yidi Ebabi, for example, who at just 19 years old had her life snuffed out when her boyfriend strangled her to death during a dispute in Yaoundé on August 8. For Modestine, 34, her husband used a butcher’s knife to take her life in front of their two young children in Douala on August 22.
Just a day earlier, another woman, a mother of three, was killed and decapitated by her partner in Yaounde. He fled with the children to Kumba, where he was arrested and later confessed to the crime.
At least eight of the 73 reported femicide cases happened within a span of seven days in late August.
MMI News reports show most of these attacks were perpetrated by husbands, boyfriends, or partners. Some women were strangled, others stabbed, some beaten repeatedly until they died in the hospital.
Gender-based violence has been a persistent problem in Cameroon, often fueled by lax enforcement of existing laws, coupled with a culture that discourages women from speaking up or walking away from domestic abuse.
Activists and experts have encouraged women to speak up more often, report the least forms of abuse and watch out when their partners exhibit certain red flags, including extreme anger, jealousy, threats or physical violence.