Yaoundé, June 16, 2026 – Between 2021 and 2025, an estimated 44,000 kilograms (44 tons) of gold left Cameroon for Dubai, while Cameroon customs declared only 148 kilograms for export. The value of this gold is estimated at nearly 2,000 billion CFA francs (approximately USD 3.4 billion), equivalent to the annual budget of the Ministry of Public Health for five consecutive years. 

The data was made public on May 25, 2026, by the Director General of SONAMINES during a media appearance. They confirm what the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) had already documented in its 2023 report: in that single year, Cameroon Customs declared 22 kilograms exported, while the UN Comtrade international database registered 15,194 kilograms of Cameroonian-origin gold imports, primarily to the United Arab Emirates.

“The Cameroonian state is not losing gold; it is being stolen from it. And the legal system for awarding mining titles is one of the entry points for this theft. Continuing to issue titles without reforming the framework and improving governance is to perpetuate the plunder,” declares Stella Tchoukep, Forest Campaigner at Greenpeace Africa.

This massive theft continues because the system allows people to get away with it. On May 13, 2026, the Ministry of Mines, Industry and Technological Development (MINMITD) revealed that more than 200 companies are operating illegally in the East and Adamawa regions, over 95% of which are foreign enterprises. These operators allegedly act through front partnerships with small local cooperatives, exploiting isolated forest areas and benefiting from internal complicity to smuggle gold out of the territory without declaring it.

“Corruption is the primary fuel of this system. Private actors, both national and foreign, are enriching themselves massively, while the average Cameroonian earns a minimum wage still below 50,000 CFA francs, (around 76 Euros)” Stella continues.

Illegal gold has a documented environmental cost. A report by the NGO Forêt et Developpement Rural (FODER) published in April 2025 reveals that the area of mining sites in the Batouri, Ketté, and Kenzou zones alone surged from 82 hectares in 2010 to over 4,600 hectares in 2024 – a 5,000% explosion in fourteen years. The agricultural lands of local communities are destroyed, and waterways are degraded.

Furthermore, the 2023 EITI Cameroon report establishes that the Mining site restoration and rehabilitation fund, although provided for by the Mining Code, is still not operational due to the lack of an implementing decree, and no environmental fines were collected in 2023. The impact is real, but remediation is non-existent.

For Greenpeace Africa, the priority is clear: cancel the allocation of new mining exploitation titles and proceed with a structural reform of the sector to strengthen governance, protect Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities (IPLCs), and preserve ecosystems.

“The losses already recorded are merely a warning sign that should command our attention. In the absence of effective and efficient control over operations in the mining sector, and as long as Cameroon continues to issue mining titles without traceability mechanisms, the 44,000 kg of gold stolen between 2021 and 2025 will just be another statistic.” Stella concludes.

Contacts 

Luchelle Feukeng Tabo, Communication and storytelling Manager, Greenpeace Africa  [email protected] / +237656463545

Stella Tchoukep, Forest Campaigner,  [email protected] / +237 6 94 59 06 79