When 44-year-old Merline left her house on the twenty-fifth day of August, she had no idea she would be counted amongst the 200 plus victims in what is now a femicide pandemic in Cameroon. The exact details about her death remain debatable, but what’s certain is that Merline didn’t deserve to die, not her, nor any of the 200 people who’ve lost their lives in the last three years.

Though scholars and feminists aren’t in agreement on the definition of femicide, we’ll go with that of the United Nations (UN), which defines femicide as the intentional killing of women and girls for gender-related reasons. By this definition and looking at the data from the government of Cameroon, we can confidently say there’s a rise in femicide across the country. 

 From 2023 till date, there have been 201 recorded cases of women and girls killed by intimate partners or ex-boyfriends: 77 femicide cases officially declared in 2025, up from 67 in 2024 and 50 in 2023, and up to 50 by April 2026. In a statement on June 3rd at the auditorium of the Ministry of Communication, the government spokesperson noted that these are “deeply regrettable phenomena”.

Through the Ministry for the Promotion of Women and the Family (Ministère de la Promotion de la Femme et de la Famille or MINPROFF), Prof. Marie Therese Abena Ondoa also revealed how disturbing the figures are, pointing to a 54% surge from 2023 to 2025, warning that this is “only the tip of the iceberg”. If we add up cases of rape, domestic violence, infanticide, and physical child abuse, we’re left with a lingering question: how did we get here?

Let’s start with the perpetrators of these gruesome crimes who happen to be jealous husbands, resentful ex-boyfriends, and in the case of Beguel Crescence Merline, the killing was allegedly driven by unmet expectations from a 22-year-old lad she'd connected with online. Some of these “passion crimes” are disturbingly committed in the presence of the victims’ children. As reported by the state media, 34-year-old Modestine was gruesomely murdered with a butcher’s knife by her husband — in the presence of their two young children. 

As we go down the rabbit hole to uncover the reasons for the rise in femicide, we spoke to Mrs. Ngwa Anna, a relationship counsellor who’s been married for more than a decade. She suggests that the reasons for the surge in femicide are mostly due to “jealousy, economic constraints and the lack of a legal framework to deter people from engaging in such acts.” This could explain the reason why Kum Julius, a security guard in Mbalmayo, Yaounde, brutally killed his wife because of 80,000 CFA. 

In addition, Cameroonian-UK-based relationship counselor and author, Delly Singah has a similar viewpoint to this. She boldly states that one of the leading causes of “femicide is cheating”. Though this isn’t fully validated in the recorded cases so far, UN Women shared that intimate partners and other family members were the perpetrators of “60 per cent of killings of women and girls globally”.

In some of the cases, controlling behavior and narcissistic tendencies have been recorded as early warning signs among perpetrators of femicide. The community’s role in this spike can’t be ignored as friends and family often encourage married women to return to their houses, even after repeated signs of marital violence. This has been the norm. It should stop. Perhaps marital violence should be categorized as attempted femicide — punishable by law.

 Cameroon isn’t an outlier in this phenomenon as there were around 50,000 recorded cases of femicide in 2024. In its report, UN Women alsosubmitted that “femicide shows no signs of slowing down”. Out of the 50,000 cases worldwide, Africa leads the chart with an estimated 22,600 victims. This huge number is due to the fact that there are no standalone laws which explicitly define or criminalize femicide as a distinct crime. This lack of legal framework makes it difficult for authorities in African states to be held accountable for the failure to prevent femicide.

 If the government effectively intervenes, with the right policies in place, there should be a considerable decline in femicide. The opposition isn’t dormant. In June 2026, The Social Democratic Front (SDF) Chairman, Joshua Osih, tabled a bill before Parliament — the Bill on the Prevention, Protection, Prosecution, and Care of Victims of Femicide and Violence Against Women. 

The Government, in response to the rise in femicide, has strongly condemned the culprits of these heinous acts, reminded parliament and the population of its status as a signatory to international conventions including: the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and the Maputo Protocol (the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Right relating to Rights of women in Africa). The Ministry for the Promotion of Women and the Family also mentioned they’ve put in motion 45 secure “Safe Spaces” and women cohesion hubs across the country.

The data is now available: 201 cases of femicide in three years — and the number is still rising. This should be enough evidence for the state and communities to act as a collective to put an end to this cankerworm devouring women, the pillars of every society. In each of these recorded cases, the signs were consistently ignored — not by the victims, but by families who sent them back when they cried out, and by government that has yet to categorize this as a crime of its own.