Cameroon:Justice in short supply

75 percent of the Country is not covered by the judiciary – Justice Minister

There are only 25 magistrate’s courts in Cameroon instead of 300 and high courts are 12 shy of the required number, Amadou Ali, Justice minister, has disclosed.
He explained during a ceremony to wish a happy New Year to Justice ministry personnel that government policy requires that there is a magistrate’s court in each subdivision and each division should have at least one high court.
But these targets are far from being met. Out of the 58 divisions, only 46 have high courts and out of the over 300 subdivisions, magistrate’s courts are found in only 25, he regretted.
Amadou Ali, however, did not mention the problem of insufficient human resources in the justice system, which is widely believed to be responsible for the sluggishness of the judicial process and one of the major obstacles to the effectiveness and efficiency of the judiciary here.
Amadou Ali said it will take at least five years before some of these problems are solved.
Like President Paul Biya in his end of year speech, Amadou Ali reiterated that the fight against corruption will continue in 2009. He said it will even constitute one of the main actions of his ministry which is responsible for the dossier.
He condemned rumours circulating that the arrests were selective. To him the arrests are done according to the law as only those who go against and with sufficient evidence of corruption are picked up.