Cameroon National Gendarmerie
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1960 Ministry of attachment: Ministère de la Défense Workforce: 12 000 General manager: BOKAM Jean-Baptiste, Secrétaire d’État à la Défense chargé de la Gendarmerie Address: Administration centrale de la Gendarmerie nationale Tél. : 00 237 222 232 979 ou (00 237) 222 230 724 Communication Manager: Capitaine MIMBOLO Brice Tél.: 00 237 675 297 944 Logistics et Technical Director : Colonel Thomas TEIFOUET Tél.: 00 237 675 297 935 
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History
Before the independence, the French Gendarmerie becomes established on January the 4th, 1920 in Douala in Cameroon, former German colony. Between 1934 and 1939, the workforce passes from 8 to 26 gendarmes. The detachment takes an active part in the repression of the Douala riots on 24th and 25th September 1945. In 1947 the detachment is divided into 3 sections for a total of 18 brigades and posts. In 1949, the 23rd August decree creates the "AEF-Cameroun" Gendarmerie detachment. Sections are divided into 30 brigades. The years, which precede the independence, are characterized by several violent disorders. When the independence occurs, the Cameroonian National Gendarmerie is established on the 1st April 1960 by the fusion of the Gendarmerie auxiliary’s corps, the Cameroonian guard and the auxiliary guards’ corps. It counts then a workforce of 2 000 men. The 22nd December 1960 order n° 60/20 and the 31st December 1960 decree n° 60/280 fix its organization and its missions. In 1983, the 20th July decree n° 83/355 creates a General Inspectorate to the National Gendarmerie General Delegation. The Cameroonian Gendarmerie is reorganized by the 12th November 1983 decree n° 83/569 and the 25th July 2001 decree n° 2001/181. The Cameroonian Gendarmerie slogan is: "Honour and Loyalty!".
Organization
Under the Ministry of Defence’s authority.
Central Organization
Territorial organization
• 4 Gendarmerie Regions (GR): Yaoundé (GR1), Douala (GR2), Garoua (GR3) and Maroua (GR4).
• 11 corps of Gendarmerie.
• 5 squads of territorial Gendarmerie.
• 71 companies of Gendarmerie.
• 486 brigades.
• Posts of Gendarmerie.
Specialized Training
• The Gendarmerie School Command and Instruction centres.
• The National Gendarmerie Multi-purpose Intervention Group (NGMIG).
• 3 groups of Mobile gendarmes squadrons, 26 squadrons, 115 mobile squads.
• 5 Road Traffic Groups with 25 motorized road squads.
• The Defence State Secretary Intervention Squadrons Group especially in charge of the gendarmerie (DSS/ISG).
• The music of the gendarmerie (a battery brass band, a harmony, an orchestra).
• One Gendarmerie Operation Centre (GOC) by corps of gendarmes handling free of charge calls for help by fixed or mobile telephone.
Missions
According to 25th July 2001 decree n° 2001/181 articles 2 and 3, the Cameroonian Gendarmerie performs the following missions of:
• criminal Investigation Department (Ensure the people and properties safety, detect the infractions, gather the evidence, look for the authors and the accomplices and if necessary refer them to the public prosecutor’s office), execute the judicial authorities’ letters rogatory or commissions to take evidence, notify the acts of justice, execute warrants and judicial decisions);
• administrative police (maintain the order, provide peace of the country and the traffic police, watch over ports and airports, control floating populations, indicate the epidemics and the epizootic diseases and watch over the respect for the sanitary measures, intervene during the floods, the fires, the landslides);
• military police;
• territory defence;
• participation in fields Operations Branch;
• assistance to various administrations.
Staff
The Cameroonian Gendarmerie counts 12 000 staffs. The officers’ recruitment is made at the high school diploma and Bachelor’s degree levels. The non-commissioned officers’ recruitment is made at the probationary level (equivalent diploma between the French General Certificate Secondary Education and the French high school diploma). The feminine recruitment is opened since 1984. A part of the staff has a military status, another part a civil status. There are no conscripts of the contingent.
Training institutions
• Military academy combined arms and Gendarmerie officers’ training school of Yaoundé.
• Gendarmerie Command of Schools and Training Centres (GCSTC) grouping together:
- the Gendarmerie Officers’ Training School (GOTS of Cameroon) in Yaoundé,
- the Training Centre of Improvement for Criminal Investigation (TCIC),
- 5 Gendarmerie Non-commissioned officers’ schools,
- 4 Instruction Centres,
- the Training Centre of Improvement for the Maintenance of Law and Order Techniques (TCIMLOT).
• The Security Forces International School (SFIS), created in May 2008 in Awaé (independent school that welcomes policemen and gendarmes).
Main equipment
• Armament: kalashnikov, AUG, FAMAS, Submachine gun, Chinese Automatic Pistol (AP), AP Browning, AP pimp 50.
• Light Vehicles: Toyota Land Cruiser 4x4, Pick-up, 4x4 Toyota Hilux and JMC 4x4 (chinese), Toyota Adventis - Motorcycles JIALING 600cm3, Yamaha 1300 FJR and BMW K100 and 1100 GR.
• Transport and Combat Armoured vehicles: Heavy trucks Mercedes, Steyr (chinese), riot-control vehicles - Heavy Trucks throwers of water for maintenance of law and order missions, Renault 4x4 TRM 2000, JP11, Police Vans for Maintenance of Law and Order missions PR10S, Toyota 35 places and minibus Toyota Hiace 9 places.
Cooperation
The Cameroonian Gendarmerie has on-going cooperation relations with France. It participates in several missions under the UNO mandate (MINUSCA in Central African Republic, MINUSCO in Democratic Republic of Congo).
© The iconography was provided by the concerned gendarmeries