Human Rights Advocate and Consultant, Gaby Ambo, who doubles as Executive Director of Finders Group Initiative, FGI, has said Cameroon urgently needs structural, legal and operational reforms to check the steady rise in femicide.
The Human Rights Advocate spoke to The Reporter Newspaper in Bamenda on September 05, 2026.
The advocacy for legal and operational reforms to check femicide in Cameroon, Gaby Ambo said, is coming in the backdrop that “over 50 femicide cases were registered in the first four months of 2026.” Ambo also pointed out that “over 219 women have been reportedly killed since 2023.”
To corroborate Gabby Ambo’s reasons for the advocacy for urgent structural, legal and operational reforms to fight femicide in Cameroon, The Guardian Post Newspaper of August 31, 2026, has this headline: Eleven Women Brutally Killed By Partners in 10 days”
Ambo told The Reporter in Bamenda that Cameroon does not recognize femicide as a specific standalone criminal offence. He said as a result, perpetrators are instead persecuted under general Penal Code provisions for homicide or murder and capital murder. “This shields the gender motivated nature of these crimes,” Ambo stated.
The Human Rights Advocate cited some legal and institutional gaps that do not give strength to any efforts made against femicide in Cameroon. Ambo said they include lack of standalone codification, absence of a domestic violence framework, fragmented and deficient data systems, customary laws and institutional bias, amongst others.
The Human Rights Advocate and Consultant, made some proposals that could be considered as advocacy strategies to get urgent reforms effected to check femicide in Cameroon.
The proposals include strategic litigation and legislative lobbying, targeting Parliament for the November 2026 session; and institutional and data reforms including campaign for a unified task force, creating a femicide tracking center, amongst others.
By Jeff Ngawe Yufenyu
