Cameroon brushes aside showdown with neighboring Chad

Cameroon Wednesday denied any tension with neighboring Chad one week after Ndjamena recalled its ambassador in Yaounde for consultation.

Chad on April 20 recalled its ambassador for consultation. The move, according to the Chadian authorities, came after Cameroon fussed about a decision by President Mahamat Idriss Deby to nationalize Esso Chad; a Chadian oil company and subsidiary of ExxonMobil.

In this tense context, Cameroon President Paul Biya send a letter to his Chadian counterpart.

The letter was handed over to the Chadian President by Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh, the General Secretary of Paul Biya’s office, at a meeting in Ndjamena.

“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.

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.

According to Cameroon’s national oil company, Société Nationale des Hydrocarbures, in 2019 the pipeline transported 47 million barrels of oil, and generated about $60 million in fees for Cameroon.