Remains of the Cameroon National Assembly building after the ravaging fire. Photo by Cameroon Tribune

The Chinese Ambassador to Cameroon, Wei Wenhua, on November 17, 2017, visited Cameroon’s National Assembly building in the capital city of Yaounde, after fire completely destroyed five of the seven storeys the night before. The building houses the Lower House of Parliament, the National Assembly. The incident occurred barely two days after the house reopened for the third and last session of the year, which discusses and votes the following year’s national Appropriation Bill.

Wei, who joined other Cameroonian cabinet ministers and senior government officials in commiserating with officers of the National Assembly, said his government was ready to entertain any request for assistance made by Cameroon following the incident. The Ambassador met Deputy Speaker, Hilarion Etong, whose office was also destroyed by the inferno.

The fire, which started on the seventh and last floor at about 10 pm local time on November 16, 2017, soon spread right down to the third floor, destroying everything in its way as firemen spent three hours before containing it. Amongst the offices consumed were those of Deputy Speakers, Parliamentary Group Leaders, Members of Parliament, Finance and Administration and other senior parliamentary officials. However, the House Chambers on the ground floor was not touched by the fire.

This latest fire outbreak in the National Assembly building, which was constructed in the mid-sixties, was the third and most damaging. The first was in 1995, while the second came in 2013. Meanwhile, plans to construct a new National Assembly building have been on the drawing board for years now. On November 14, 2016, an agreement was reached with the Chinese government to construct a 13-storey facility complete with offices for all Members of Parliament.

The fire destroyed almost half of Cameroon's National Assembly building. Photo by Cameroon Tribune

On September 22, 2017, two framework agreements and an economic and technical cooperation deal worth 973 million RMB were signed in the Cameroonian capital by the country’s Minister of Economy, Planning and Regional Development, Louis Paul Motaze, and Ambassador Wei Wenhua.

One of the deals worth 99 million RMB was an economic and technical cooperation accord for carrying out feasibility studies on the construction of a new National Assembly building for Cameroon. "The amount is a gift from the Chinese government without any counterpart contribution from Cameroon," Ambassador Wei Wenhua clarified. "The agreements demonstrate the willingness of China to strengthen economic and technical cooperation with Cameroon," Minister Motaze noted at the time.

Kimeng Hilton Ndukong, a contributor to People’s Daily Online, is Sub-Editor for World News with Cameroon Tribune bilingual daily newspaper in Cameroon. He is currently a 2017 China-Africa Press Centre, CAPC fellow.