Atonfack Guemo issues direct warning: Cameroon must stay vigilant
In a blunt editorial aired on the program “Honneur et fidélité” on Saturday, September 19, 2026, Atonfack Guemo, director of communication at the Ministry of Defense, delivered a straightforward call for permanent vigilance across Cameroon.
His message was clear: the era of globalized insecurity demands that every citizen remain alert, patriotic, and ready to defend the nation.
Global violence is escalating
Frozen conflicts are thawing. Ongoing wars drag on. Security crises continue without end. On nearly every continent, the sound of weapons grows louder and more frequent. Whether in clashes between regular armies, asymmetric operations, or shootings—those low-intensity but highly lethal forms of violence—the toll is staggering. Gun violence alone claims over 200,000 lives each year worldwide.
This globalization of armed violence fuels a palpable sense of permanent insecurity. That feeling can quickly turn into psychosis, especially in countries plagued by international terrorism whose capacity for harm keeps expanding despite unanimous condemnations and sanctions.
Terrorist tactics are multiplying
Bombings, attacks, blockade attempts, and hostage-takings are on the rise. All of this is possible only because terrorists can acquire means of action across land, air, sea, and cyber domains. There is no need to ask by whom or why. Our enemies are supported by our friends—for our own good.
At the same time, we see the globalization of other forms of insecurity across different areas of human activity. Industrial espionage targets businesses. Wildlife, plant, and mineral resources are looted. Communication routes are sabotaged, destroyed, or diverted. Politics, education, and centuries-old cultural practices are distorted in every way. These are all attacks—violence against people, institutions, and the environment. And at the current pace, no country seems powerful enough to avoid being a target.
Cameroon is on the front line
We, Cameroonian citizens, are in the best position to know what is at stake. We must fight hard to survive the multiple aggressions that have made our country a convergence point.
Our nation devotes enormous parts of its economic, material, and human potential to blocking the consequences of instability on its eastern borders and to smothering transnational projects of obscurantist extremism in its northern region. And—not the least of the perils—Cameroon is working to drain another abscess: the seditious ambitions in its western regions.
In this dangerous global environment, Cameroon does its best to prevent, contain, and when necessary, reduce the occurrence and severity of attacks targeting it. To date, the results of our efforts are rather satisfactory, although eruptions of violence are still recorded in some parts of the national territory. In this noble struggle, the support of our compatriots for the professional workers of national defense is invaluable.
Vigilance at every moment
Still, we must continue to exercise vigilance at all times, at every point of the national territory and in all domains, to thwart the maneuvers of an adversary from whom we should expect neither respite nor mercy.
Let us remain patriots. Let us stay vigilant. Let us love Cameroon definitively.
