This is now a pattern, not an event. Borrow, pay arrears, service old debt, fund political machinery, abandon projects, accumulate new arrears, borrow again. This is not governance. It is debt dependence. Not development economics. Not growth policy. Not fiscal planning. It is regime maintenance through credit.
By The Independentistnews Editorial desk
YAOUNDE January 22, 2026 – Cameroon’s latest borrowing spree is being sold as “development.” In reality, it is debt recycling dressed as policy. On January twenty one, Paul Biya signed a decree authorizing Louis Paul Motaze to contract up to CFA one thousand six hundred and fifty billion, nearly three billion dollars, in new loans. Officially, the money is meant to “clear arrears” and “finance development projects.” In plain language, this means borrowing to pay old debts, while accumulating new ones. This is not economic strategy. It is financial survivalism.
The structure of the plan exposes the truth. One thousand billion CFA from international markets. Four hundred billion CFA from Treasury bonds. Two hundred and fifty billion CFA from local private lenders. This is not investment capital flowing into productive sectors. This is liquidity extraction to keep the state machine running. “Restes à payer,” unpaid state bills, are not an accounting glitch. They are proof of systemic failure: contracts issued without funding discipline, projects started without completion plans, suppliers unpaid while elites remain liquid. A state that borrows to pay itself is not developing. It is refinancing dysfunction.
We are told public debt stands at forty three point nine percent of GDP, safely below the CEMAC ceiling of seventy percent. But debt ratios mean nothing without productivity. Debt is only sustainable when it creates industrial output, export capacity, revenue growth, institutional efficiency, and productive employment. Cameroon’s debt produces patronage networks, political survival, elite consumption, abandoned projects, inflated contracts, and recurring arrears. This is why both the International Monetary Fund and the African Development Bank classify Cameroon as high risk of debt distress. Not because of percentages, but because of structure. The problem is not how much is borrowed. The problem is what the borrowing creates. And it creates nothing durable.
This is now a pattern, not an event. Borrow, pay arrears, service old debt, fund political machinery, abandon projects, accumulate new arrears, borrow again. This is not governance. It is debt dependence. Not development economics. Not growth policy. Not fiscal planning. It is regime maintenance through credit.
For Ambazonia, this borrowing has a deeper meaning. These loans are backed by resources extracted from occupied territories, revenues generated without consent, assets controlled without legitimacy, and a state structure rejected by the people it claims to govern. This is debt colonialism layered on political occupation — mortgaging the future of peoples who never consented to the state that borrows in their name.
Cameroon is not poor. It is structurally misgoverned. Cameroon is not underfunded. It is financially misallocated. Cameroon is not underdeveloped. It is extractively governed. Borrowing three billion dollars will not fix institutional decay, corruption networks, legitimacy collapse, productivity failure, or social contract breakdown. It will only delay the reckoning.
This decree is not a solution. It is a delay mechanism. Not development — debt anesthesia. Not reform — financial sedation. Not growth — borrowed survival. Not governance — managed insolvency. A state that borrows to pay itself is not building a future. It is selling tomorrow to survive today. And no amount of loans can refinance a broken system.
A Message to Ambazonia
To the people of Ambazonia, this moment is not just about Cameroon’s debt. It is about clarity of destiny. Every billion CFA borrowed by Yaoundé is borrowed without your consent. Every loan is secured against resources extracted from your land. Every arrear is paid with value taken from territories under occupation. Every so called development project is financed through a system that denies your sovereignty. This is not shared development. It is forced financial inclusion in a state you did not choose.
Cameroon’s debt crisis is not your burden, but they will try to make it your inheritance. Their fiscal collapse is not your responsibility, but they will try to attach it to your future. Their insolvency is not your legacy, but they will try to register it in your name. Ambazonia must understand this clearly. You are not fighting only a political occupation. You are resisting a financial entrapment system. A system that borrows in your name, extracts from your land, mortgages your future, indebts generations unborn, and calls it national development.
This is why sovereignty is not symbolic. It is economic survival. Without sovereignty, your resources fund чужие systems, your wealth stabilizes foreign structures, your future is used as collateral, and your land becomes security for чужие debts. Ambazonia’s struggle is not just about flags, borders, and identity. It is about escaping a debt empire. A system where occupation is political, extraction is economic, debt is financial, and control is institutional.
The future Ambazonia must build is not a borrowed economy, not a debt dependent state, not a donor addicted system, not a loan driven republic. It must be a productive state: production before borrowing, industry before debt, value creation before credit, sovereignty before integration, legitimacy before finance. Because a free people must never inherit another people’s debts, and a sovereign nation must never be born already mortgaged.
The Independentistnews editorial desk
