Yaounde: Biya boycotts meeting with clergymen

President Paul Biya has boycotted the meeting with bishops from the Central African subregion which is underway at the Yaoundé Conference Centre. He will be represented at the event by the Minister of Territorial Administration and Decentralization, Rene Emmanuel Sadi, reports say. Paul Biya was highly awaited at the conference which comes at a very hard moment, as the death of Bishop Balla remains controversial in Cameroon and beyond. 

The conference is part of the 11th annual plenary of the Assembly of the Association of Episcopal Conferences of Central Africa. One of the major items on the agenda is likely the mysterious death of the Bishop of Bafia. Bishop Jean Marie Balla went missing at the beginning of last month. About three days later he was found dead on the banks of River Sanaga .

Recent preliminary reports of the post-mortem examinations suggest that the bishop had drowned. No trace of physical violence was found on the corpse, they say. But then catholic bishops in Cameroon had asserted that he had been brutally murdered.