Chad thaws ties with Cameroon, ambassador returns to Yaounde

Chad’s ambassador to Cameroon Djidda Moussa Outhman returned Wednesday to Yaounde, the Cameroonian capital, nearly two months after being recalled for consultation in protest to Cameroon’s reaction after authorities nationalized an oil company.

Chad Foreign ministry in a statement issued Wednesday indicated that Outhman is back to Cameroon.

Both countries fell out in April after Chadian authorities nationalized “Esso Chad”, a Chadian oil company and subsidiary of ExxonMobil. Yaounde made fuss about the decision.

Esso which ExxonMobil sold to London-listed Savannah Energy PLC in December, was the company operating the American oil giant’s oil operations in Chad and Cameroon.

The company controls the Doba oil project – an oil pipeline project that transports oil from the Doba Oil Field in southern Chad to a floating export facility at Kribi, Cameroon, in the Gulf of Guinea.

Cameroon however has sought to defuse the crisis. Late April, one week after Ndjamena recalled its ambassador, President Paul Biya sent a letter to his Chadian counterpart.

The letter was handed over to the Chadian President by Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh, the General Secretary of Biya’s office. “I can assure you that all the issues were addressed and that we were able to see that some misunderstandings were cleared up and that there is really no cloud in the relationship between Cameroon and Chad,” the Cameroonian envoy told media after meeting with President Idriss Deby.