Récapinfos

Honor and Loyalty : DEFENSE INDUSTRY : Cameroon on track 




Cameroon is planning to build a munitions factory. The idea has been gaining ground since 2022, when the Ministry of Defence set up a working group to develop the military-industrial capacity of the Cameroonian army. It should be made clear from the outset that this prospect, ambitious as it may seem, is entirely within our country’s grasp, as it is based on a solid technical and intellectual foundation held by our military and civilian personnel.




Knowledge and know-how that have been acquired at the cost of heavy investment and whose dual application can only be of benefit to us, especially in the context of the urgent and growing needs that we are experiencing, given the multiplication of sources of insecurity in and around the national territory, not to mention the hawkish statements that are shaking the peace of the planet. All these threats and aggressions are fuelled by a large trade in increasingly sophisticated arms and munitions, which are often denied to our States for reasons best known to their suppliers.




Between higher selling prices and delivery delays justified by more or less real logistical difficulties and other geostrategic positioning desires, countries that do not produce the equipment they need for their security find it very difficult to satisfy their needs, very often in return for expensive political or economic mortgages granted to these same suppliers.




Breaking out of this spiral of insecurity and blackmail is therefore becoming an objective of the utmost importance and, as the Minister Delegate at the Presidency in charge of Defence, Beti Assomo Joseph, told the members of the National Assembly on 30 June, it is a question of, and I quote, “achieving strategic autonomy so that we are no longer entirely dependent on foreign partners for our defence equipment and are thus protected from the contingencies and upheavals of relations between States”. End of quote.




In practical terms, having our own local production capacity will give us, among other things, greater control over stock management, greater freedom of manoeuvre in the conduct of operations, a reduction in the amount we spend on arms and, why not, the possibility of projecting ourselves abroad in order to capture a share of an ever-expanding market.