Cameroon apologises for anti-Semitic view

Cameroon has expressed “sincere regret” to Israel over comments made by a minister who compared the Bamileke people to Jews persecuted by Nazis.

Cameroon has expressed “sincere regret” to Israel over comments made by a minister who compared the Bamileke people to Jews persecuted by Nazis.

Deputy justice minister Jean de Dieu Momo appeared to warn arrested opposition leader Maurice Kamto that he is leading the Bamileke people to a similar fate of Jews murdered in Nazi Germany in World War 2. Both men are of Bamileke descent.

“In Germany, there was a very rich community who wielded all economic power,” De Dieu Momo said on Sunday during a prime-time TV show on the public Cameroon network. He added that he was referring to the Jews.

“They [the Jews] were so arrogant that the German people were frustrated,” he said.

“Then one day, a certain Hitler came to power and put them in the gas chambers,” De Dieu Momo said.

“Educated people like Mr Kamto need to know where they are leading their people,” the minister said.

Former government minister Maurice Kamto was arrested on January 28 in a move condemned by human rights groups. Analysts say the authorities view Kamto as a threat as he claims to have been cheated out of the presidency in the 2018 general elections.

The Cameroon government distanced itself from De Dieu Momo amid outrage from Israel.

“The government of the republic of Cameroon would like to stress that the minister concerned was speaking in a personal capacity,” communication minister René Emmanuel Sadi on Tuesday.

The government said it “deplored” the deputy justice minister’s comments, but has not said if he will be disciplined.

The Israeli embassy in Cameroon “strongly” condemned Kamto’s comments, which it said “makes a tacit justification of the Holocaust by Nazi Germany”.