April 28, 2006, marked a significant date for Cameroon, as the country aimed to reach the completion point of the HIPC initiative, a milestone that promised debt relief of over 700 billion CFA francs, equivalent to 27% of the national debt. However, behind this financial prospect lay a more complex reality. The HIPC initiative, designed by the IMF and the World Bank, aimed to reduce the debt of the poorest countries to a manageable level. For Cameroon, reaching this completion point required demonstrating good governance, prompting the Bretton Woods institutions to demand an additional pledge of goodwill.
It was in this context that Operation Sparrowhawk was born, an anti-corruption campaign launched by the Etoudi Palace to prove Yaoundé's determination. According to some sources, this strategy was suggested by an IMF expert, Emmanuel Essimi Menye, who is now on the run and himself facing charges of embezzlement. However, Operation Sparrowhawk quickly turned into a tool for settling political scores. The targets were not always the most corrupt individuals, but rather political enemies or personalities whose influence was deemed threatening. Magistrates and judicial officers were tasked with finding evidence against them, in a system where corruption was widespread.
Emblematic cases illustrate this drift. Urbain Olanguena Awono, former Minister of Health, was arrested for defying Chantal Biya, the First Lady. Similarly, Emmanuel Gérard Ondo Ndong, former head of FEICOM, was sentenced to 50 years in prison for being too generous during the construction of the presidential villa in Golf, sparking rumors about his proximity to the president's mother-in-law. André Bello Mbélé, former Minister of Mines, was the victim of a violent attack for harassing the woman who would become the president's mother-in-law.
Gilles Roger Belinga, a polytechnician who oversaw the construction of the Hilton Hotel in Yaoundé, was arrested shortly after publishing a book glorifying Paul Biya, thus becoming a symbol of the regime's failure. Under his leadership, SIC, initially intended to house civil servants at affordable prices, saw its ambitions compromised. Cameroon certainly obtained the completion point of the HIPC initiative, but at the cost of becoming a heavily indebted poor country. Operation Sparrowhawk, initially designed to fight corruption, mainly served to settle political scores.
Twenty years later, in February 2026, former senior officials such as Gilles Roger Belinga and Gérard Ondo Ondo were released after serving prison sentences related to Operation Sparrowhawk. Their release has revived debates about the fate of embezzled public funds and the real effectiveness of this anti-corruption campaign. The question of whether the money from the debt relief has really benefited the Cameroonian people or whether it has simply consolidated a system where justice is instrumentalized remains.
