US prosecution of Cameroon separatist financiers

A United States federal court has sentenced three Cameroonian nationals for providing material and financial support to separatist armed groups involved in the Anglophone crisis in Cameroon’s North-West and South-West regions.

Francis Chenyi Sr. and Lah Nestor Langmi were each sentenced to 15 years in prison. Their convictions included conspiracy to provide material support for killing, kidnapping, and maiming in a foreign country, as well as conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction abroad and international money laundering. Claude Ngenevu Chi received a sentence of five years and three months after pleading guilty to conspiring to provide material support for the use of weapons of mass destruction abroad.

Evidence presented during the proceedings showed the defendants used digital communications and peer-to-peer transfers to coordinate with armed groups. This included financing the acquisition and assembly of improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs), as well as facilitating kidnappings and the payment of ransoms, such as the 2021 abduction of Cardinal Christian Tumi.