Cameroon: General Tumenta making his last journey home

Bamenda the chief city in the North West region on February 5, 2016 received the mortal remains of Major General Martin Chomu Tumenta. On arrival at the Bamenda airport, the late general's coffin was received by the Governor of the Northwest West Region, Adolf Lele L’Afrique including the region’s top administrators. Flown into the city in a military plane, the body of the 61 year old late Major General was accompanied by two other army generals among them Gen Ivo Yenwo Desancio, Director of Presidential Security who also hails from the Northwest region. 

Governor Adolph Lele exchanged words of condolence with the wife of the fallen General at the airport. As the plane opened to release the remains of the late General, silence griped the airport then military rituals and some tears running down the chicks of family members and other onlookers. In military styled, the casket was marched to a waiting military ambulance for departure to Ndop. Prior to his death on November 30, Maj. Gen. Tumenta, was serving as Force Commander of the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA).

Born in 1954 Maj. Gen. Tumenta started his military career after graduating from the military academy EMIA in Yaounde in 1977 as an air force officer. He later served in several positions including, amongst others, Chief Operations Officer at the Army Headquarters in Yaounde, Commander of Operation DELTA in the Bakassi Peninsula and Commander of the Third Military Region, which covers Cameroon’s northern regions and had its headquarters in Garoua.

In 2013, he was appointed Commander of the African-led International Support Mission to the Central African Republic (MISCA) a force that was later transformed to the broader MINUSCA mission. In July 2014, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon appointed Maj. Gen. Tumenta as Force Commander of MINUSCA. Major General Tumenta will be buried in his native Babungo, in Ngoketungia Division, on Saturday February 6, 2016.