50 Femicides by April, Three More Women Killed in Days: Is Cameroon Doing Enough to Protect Women?

A pregnant woman, a 30-year-old teacher and a mother reportedly shot in front of her 10-year-old son are the latest victims in a succession of killings that has renewed questions over how Cameroon is protecting women from lethal violence by intimate partners.

Three women have been killed in separate incidents in Yaoundé and Cameroon’s East Region within a matter of days, adding to an already alarming year of deadly violence against women.

The victims have been identified as Tchos Blandine, Chea Géraldine, also reported as Géraldine Amambua, and Eyenga Konga Jamelle.

In all three cases, their current or former partners have been named in reports surrounding the deaths. Two men are reported to be in custody, while a gendarme accused of killing Eyenga is under medical supervision after surviving an apparent attempt to take his own life.

The deaths were reported between September 7 and 9, according to The Guardian Post, which devoted its September 11 front page to the cases.

They come against a much larger backdrop. Cameroon’s Ministry of Women’s Empowerment and the Family told Parliament in June that 50 femicides had been officially recorded between January and April 2026 alone, alongside 166 rapes and 13 infanticides. The minister acknowledged that recorded cases represented only part of the real scale of violence because many attacks are never reported.

And the killings have not stopped.

In late August, MMI News reported cases of at least eight women had been killed in violent or suspicious circumstances in roughly eight days, several in cases involving intimate partners.

Now, barely two weeks later, three more names have been added to the growing list.

Tchos Blandine: reported pregnant with twins

Tchos Blandine was reported killed following an assault at Etoug-Ebe in Yaoundé.

Reports say she was pregnant with twins.

Her husband was subsequently taken into gendarmerie custody as investigations began. The Guardian Post reports that Blandine’s body was later transported to Bangangté in the West Region, where funeral arrangements were being made.

Details surrounding her death remain limited, and MMI News has not independently established the full circumstances preceding the attack.

What is established in the reports reviewed is that Blandine is dead, her partner has been taken into custody, and investigators are now faced with determining responsibility for the violence that ended her life.

Her reported pregnancy means the killing has attracted particular outrage. It also occurred as Cameroon was already dealing with a succession of deaths of women in intimate and domestic settings.

Géraldine: neighbours heard noises hours before her death

The death of Chea Géraldine, a 30-year-old teacher in Yaoundé, has produced a more detailed sequence of events.

Géraldine died in the early hours of September 8 after an incident at the home she shared with her partner, Manfred Amambua.

According to accounts reported by Equinoxe Television and reproduced by The Guardian Post, neighbours heard disturbing noises coming from the couple’s home at about 11pm the previous night.

One neighbour went to the residence and tried to establish what was happening. Manfred initially told him that everything was fine and reportedly refused to allow him inside. The neighbour persisted, and his wife was eventually permitted to enter and see Géraldine.

Hours later, neighbours were alerted again.

Géraldine was found lying on a bed, vomiting and in distress. She was taken to a health facility in Messassi, where she died shortly afterwards.

Her partner reportedly told relatives that she had suffered a fall. But members of Géraldine’s family said they noticed injuries on her body which, in their view, did not correspond with that explanation. Her sister Regina reported injuries around her mouth and elsewhere on her body.

Griote TV separately reported that medical personnel alerted security services after Géraldine arrived at the health facility with visible signs of violence.

Manfred disappeared following her death, triggering a search.

That part of the story has now changed.

He was arrested near Foumban in the West Region on September 10, according to subsequent reports. He was reportedly intercepted while attempting to continue his journey towards Nigeria.

The arrest means investigators now have an opportunity to establish what happened inside the couple’s home during the hours preceding Géraldine’s death.

No court has yet determined criminal responsibility.

Eyenga killed with gendarmerie weapon

The third case unfolded hundreds of kilometres away in Ntam in the East Region.

Eyenga Konga Jamelle was fatally shot in an incident involving Gendarme Major Essindi Protaire Junior, according to information subsequently attributed to Colonel Nnoko Ngide Divine of the East Gendarmerie Legion.

Early reports said Eyenga was shot four times and that her 10-year-old son witnessed the attack. The Guardian Post also reported that the shooting occurred at about 4am.

Initial media reports then claimed the gendarme had killed himself after shooting Eyenga.

That information was wrong.

The Gendarmerie later clarified that Essindi survived after turning his weapon on himself. He was evacuated to the Sangmelima Referral Hospital and remains under medical surveillance.

Colonel Nnoko Ngide Divine also identified him as a gendarme serving at the Mbalam post in the Ngoyla subdivision and said an investigation had been opened into the circumstances of the killing.

The latest official account differs from some of the earliest social-media reports about what led to the shooting. For that reason, MMI News is not presenting jealousy, infidelity or a breakup as established motives. Those circumstances remain for investigators to determine.

What is no longer in dispute is that Eyenga was shot dead and that the gendarme identified in the case survived and is now under medical care.

From individual killings to a national pattern

Taken separately, each death could easily be reduced to another domestic crime report.

Taken together with what has happened across Cameroon this year, they point to a much wider problem.

When Women’s Empowerment Minister Marie-Thérèse Abena Ondoa appeared before the National Assembly in June, she said the government had registered 1,599 cases of violence between January and April 2026, including 50 femicides.

The United Nations had already raised the alarm.

In June, the UN system in Cameroon publicly expressed concern about what it described as a resurgence of femicides, infanticides and sexual violence and called for stronger prevention, reporting mechanisms, access to justice and an end to impunity.

Then came August.

Between August 6 and 26, Human Rights Watch documented another succession of women killed, including by current or former partners. The organisation said the cases exposed serious weaknesses in protection and access to justice for women facing domestic violence.

By August 28, CRTV was reporting at least eight women killed in roughly eight days.

And on August 29, activists and families gathered in Yaoundé for a candlelight vigil organised by the Central Africa Young Feminist Network, REJEFEMAC, alongside campaigners from Stop Feminicides 237.

Families carried the memories of women including Frida Ndomen Poro and Anaïs Zeh Eyamo. Stop Feminicides 237 said it had documented more than 300 women and girls killed since 2023.

Days later came Blandine, Géraldine and Eyenga.

Cameroon still has no specific domestic violence law

The killings are also reopening a difficult question about Cameroon’s legal response.

Cameroon does not currently have a standalone law criminalising domestic violence as a distinct offence, according to Human Rights Watch and the UN Women Global Database on Violence Against Women.

Violence committed within relationships can be prosecuted under general Penal Code provisions covering assault, injury and homicide, but domestic violence itself is not treated as a separate category of crime. UN Women also records that Cameroon has no standalone violence-against-women law and no specific provision criminalising marital rape.

The government says change is being prepared.

The Ministry of Women’s Empowerment and the Family says a specific bill on gender-based violence is under preparation, while Minister Abena Ondoa told parliamentarians in June that work on the legislation was well advanced.

Civil society organisations have been pushing for the legislation to move faster.

The question now is how many more women will die before measures promised on paper translate into protection in homes, communities, police stations and courts.

Police authorities have urged women experiencing abuse and people who witness it to report threats before violence escalates. The Guardian Post says gender desks exist in police stations for reporting gender-based violence, and Commissioner Christine Irène Mindjom recently warned that violence which begins verbally can escalate into physical attacks and eventually killing.

But responsibility cannot rest only with women being abused.

Human Rights Watch has called for more shelters, stronger survivor services, easier access to protection and a coordinated government response involving the ministries responsible for women, justice, security and finance.

Blandine, Géraldine and Eyenga are now three more cases for Cameroon’s justice system to investigate.

For their families, however, they are not statistics.

One was reportedly expecting twins. One was a 30-year-old teacher whose neighbours heard trouble before she died. One was a mother whose young son is reported to have witnessed her killing.

And they died in a country that had already officially counted 50 femicides by the end of April.