Two former government ministers arrested in Cameroon

09/01/2010 15:20

(AFP) – 20 hours ago

YAOUNDE — Cameroon police on Friday arrested two former members of the government and about 10 of their ex-colleagues during a crackdown on corruption, a judicial source told AFP.

The two were named as former budget minister Henri Engolou (2004-2006) and the former junior minister for secondary education, Catherine Abena (2004-2009), said the source, who asked not to be named.

Arrested for embezzlement, the two former ministers and their aides were placed in custody at police headquarters in Yaounde, the source said.

The reported arrests followed inquiries that the police have already completed in Operation Epervier (Sparrowhawk), a major crackdown on corruption in the central African country ordered by President Paul Biya.

On Wednesday, police arrested Haman Adama, ex-minister of primary education, and nine other people, including the former director general of the Cameroon airports authority, Roger Ntongo Onguene.

These 10 people were on Thursday night placed in "preventive detention at the central prison" in Yaounde, another judicial source told AFP, without saying whether they had been charged.

Operation Sparrowhawk, launched at the end of 2004 under pressure from international donors, has led to the arrests and stiff prison sentences for several people, including former ministers.

However, many local non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and diplomats consider that the level of corruption remains very high in Cameroon and that there is little political will to stamp it out.

"We will go through to the end, whatever some people say," Biya said in an address to the nation at the end of December.