Fraud, Silence, and Broken Systems: UK Man’s Emails Expose Cameroon’s Dysfunctional Institutions

Mr. John Bridges, a UK citizen, has reported being defrauded of £25,000 (approximately 19 million FCFA) by a Cameroonian national identified as Randy Leticia, allegedly based in Douala. According to Bridges, the fraud took place over three years and involved false documents, emotional manipulation, and calculated deceit.

Bridges has been desperately trying to report the matter to Cameroonian police, ministries, and media outlets—but all in vain. His numerous emails reveal a grim picture of public service collapse: unanswered phones, dead-end websites, disconnected institutions, and a refusal to act.

“I have called several of the Cameroon police stations, but none has been able to help me,” he wrote. “Many of the numbers don’t work, and people just put the phone down.”

This experience echoes the lived reality of millions of Cameroonians. The Biya regime, now over four decades in power, has presided over the systematic dismantling of state institutions. What remains is a hollowed-out bureaucracy where access to justice is elusive, and accountability is nonexistent.

“Even the Office of the Prime Minister won’t help me with this simple request,” Bridges wrote. “You are not doing your country's reputation any good with me. WAKE UP.”

And perhaps he is right to go public. For years, we have cried out against the failings of this regime, only to be met with indifference, repression, or ridicule. When outsiders begin to feel the weight of this dysfunction, it only confirms what we have always known: Cameroon is broken, and not by accident.

Cameroon Concord does not absolve the criminal who committed this scam. She should be investigated, arrested, and prosecuted through proper legal channels. But the greater scandal is the system that enabled her—a state so indifferent to duty that even a basic fraud report cannot find a place to land.

This is not just about fraud. It is about what happens when a government prioritizes handing out bread, sardines, and 2,000 FCFA to starving citizens in exchange for votes, instead of investing in public services, justice, and integrity.

It is about a police force that answers to political directives rather than public complaints. It is about a regime that builds conference halls and presidential villas, while its own citizens cannot reach law enforcement during an emergency.

Cameroon does not suffer from a lack of laws or resources. It suffers from a lack of will—deliberate, sustained, and brutal.

To Mr. Bridges: your frustration mirrors our everyday reality. Your outrage is justified. Your warnings are a wake-up call not just for Cameroon's image abroad, but for the shame that those in power refuse to acknowledge at home.

To the regime: this is your legacy. The world sees it now.