Boxing: crisis at the Cameroonian federation reaching worrying proportions

The crisis within the Cameroonian Boxing Federation (Fécaboxe), which began in December 2022 when the electoral process was launched, has reached worrying proportions. The conflict escalated sharply in May 2023, when outgoing president Bertrand Mendouga, who was also head of the African Boxing Confederation at the time, decided to stand for re-election.

Voices were raised against his candidacy, denouncing a blatant accumulation of roles. In response, Cameroon's sports minister Narcisse Mouelle Kombi set up a Provisional Management Committee (CPG) to run Fécaboxe on 14 July 2023, hoping for an immediate return to normality.

A candidate for each side

However, the vote, originally scheduled for 21 October, never took place, leaving the Federation in a political impasse. In the meantime, Bertrand Mendouga was removed from his post at the African Boxing Confederation. It is whispered that he and the former Fécaboxe leadership team are now trying to stage a comeback at national level.

Rumours are circulating that he wants to install his former secretary general, Me André Basile Kalong, as his chosen successor to the presidency of the body. The move is fiercely contested by opponents of the former executive, who are asking the CPG to restart the electoral process from where it stopped, meaning without Bertrand Mendouga, but with Pr Pierre René Binyom as the sole candidate for the Fécaboxe presidency.

Mediation

The two camps, now openly at war, are holding to their respective positions, making any peaceful resolution of the conflict difficult. The CPG has attempted mediation, but the differences remain. A recent round of talks aimed at finding a consensual solution and relaunching the electoral process failed to produce an agreement. Even so, an electoral timetable has been submitted to the sports minister for consideration. "We are here to give the Federation a legitimate and legal executive to carry on the monumental work that awaits it," said Pierre Edmond Banga, president of the CPG.

However, tensions remain, and some of those involved stress the need to move forward without wasting any more time. "The electoral process in this federation has dragged on too long, we have been at it for more than a year. These are problems of clans, problems of personalities. There are certainly differing views, but there are also the rules and the rulings that must be respected," says a boxing referee.

Those involved in Cameroonian boxing must come together to revise the Federation's statutes, adopt an electoral code, and elect the members of the Electoral Commission and the Appeals Commission before the next Executive Board is elected. Negotiations continue.

Arthur Wandji