Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections to Cameroon

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Israeli creation, command and arming of Biya's presidential guard and the Rapid Intervention Battalion, torture at the BIR's Salak base, a small self-converted Jewish community, firm diplomatic support for the Zionist state and Israeli trade

Cameroon has one of the closest security relationships with the Zionist state of any African country. After a failed coup in 1984, President Paul Biya turned to Israelis to rebuild his personal security. A former Israeli defence attaché created his presidential guard and, later, the elite Rapid Intervention Battalion (Bataillon d'intervention rapide, BIR). Israeli contractors have continued to train and equip both units.[1][2] Amnesty International documented torture at the BIR's headquarters at Salak.[3] Cameroon also has a small community of converts to Judaism.[4]

Jewish community and religious life

History

No historic Jewish community was found in Cameroon. The Beth Yeshourun community was founded in 1998, when its leaders turned away from Christianity. Its members taught themselves Jewish liturgy, Hebrew and Torah from Jewish websites. They had their first visitors from abroad, the American rabbis Bonita and Gerald Sussman of Kulanu, in 2010.[4]

The community today

The community began as a Pentecostal congregation that decided to become Jewish. Its leader, Serge Etele, travelled to "Israel" to study.[5] According to Kulanu, which supports the community, Etele (also known as Amir Etele) studied at the Ohr Torah Stone yeshiva in Efrat, a settlement in the occupied West Bank, as a candidate for rabbinic ordination. Kulanu has also helped the community with an agricultural project and with Jewish education.[4]

How far is it Zionist? No Zionist federation or Israeli fundraising body was found in Cameroon. Beth Yeshourun is a religious community. Its main tie to "Israel" is its leader's rabbinic study at a yeshiva in a West Bank settlement.[4] The Zionist state's real weight in Cameroon lies in its security role (see below), not in Jewish communal life.

Chabad

Main article: Chabad-Lubavitch movement

There is no Chabad Bot page for Cameroon, and no permanent Chabad centre was found there. Cameroon is not among the ten countries with permanent centres under Chabad of Central Africa.[6] The Alliance of Rabbis in Islamic States lists no rabbi in Cameroon.[7]

Zionist movement and advocacy

No organised Zionist movement was found in Cameroon. Support for "Israel" comes from the presidency. On 9 October 2023, two days after the Hamas attack, Biya wrote to the Israeli president, Isaac Herzog, to express his "sincere condolences". He made no mention of Palestinian casualties. The Africa Report noted that this set Cameroon apart from the African Union's position.[8][9]

Israeli state and commercial ties

Diplomatic relations

Cameroon cut relations with "Israel" in 1973. In 1986 it was one of the first African states to restore them, after Prime Minister Shimon Peres flew to Yaoundé in August 1986 with emergency medical aid after a volcanic gas eruption. Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir visited in June 1987.[10] The Israeli embassy in Yaoundé lists later contacts:

  • Cameroon's foreign minister, Lejeune Mbella Mbella, attended Peres's funeral in 2016.
  • The footballer Roger Milla, as Cameroon's roving ambassador, was an official guest of "Israel" in 2017.
  • In 2018 the Israeli state's Paymaster General visited Cameroon to inspect Israeli-funded projects.[11]

The presidential guard and the BIR

The 1984 coup attempt was led from inside the republican guard. According to African Arguments, Biya suspected that France had backed it and looked for new security partners.

  • The arms brokers. Biya turned first to Meir Meyuhas, an Israeli businessman and former secret agent, and later to his son Sami. The father and son held an exclusive licence from the Israeli Ministry of Defence to negotiate arms deals with Cameroon. Sources told the Israeli Channel 12 that the Meyuhas family was still behind military exports to Cameroon in 2020.[1]
  • Abraham Avi Sivan. Sivan, a colonel who had been the Israeli defence attaché in Yaoundé, stayed on as a contract adviser to the presidency. Jeune Afrique reports that he built the presidential guard with instructors brought from "Israel". Its equipment, from uniforms to Galil and Negev weapons, came almost entirely from "Israel". He then formed a light infantry battalion against banditry. It became the BIR, which took its orders directly from the presidency rather than the army hierarchy.[2]
  • Sivan's death. Sivan, a former commander of the IDF's Duvdevan unit, was killed when a Cameroonian army helicopter crashed on 22 November 2010. The IDF confirmed his death, giving his name as Avraham Avir Sivan.[12][13]
  • Sivan's successor. Accounts differ. Jeune Afrique (2015) named Mayer Heres, a retired Israeli general, as Biya's security adviser and head of the BIR, which then had more than 5,000 men. It said he also controlled the presidential guard.[14] African Arguments, working with the Israeli Channel 12, reported that "likely fake" names such as "Maher Heretz" had circulated. Former BIR soldiers identified former Brigadier General Erez Zuckerman as being "at the top" from about 2012. Zuckerman confirmed that he had worked as a military adviser in Cameroon but said he had not returned since 2017.[1]
  • Eran Moas. Moas first came to Cameroon in 1998 to maintain army communications for Tadiran. He later held a position with the BIR. African Arguments found that he had bought at least $32 million of property, and two sources linked him to a $43 million port-security contract at Douala awarded in 2018.[1]
  • Weapons. According to BIR soldiers, every recruit since 2009 has received a new rifle made by Israel Weapon Industries: ACE, Galil and Tavor models. Israeli firms also supplied armoured vehicles and equipped the presidential guard.[1]

The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute records Israeli deliveries to Cameroon from 1985 onwards:

  • an Arava transport aircraft and RAM armoured vehicles (1985–86);
  • 155mm guns (1997–2001);
  • CARDOM self-propelled mortars (2006);
  • further RAM vehicles (2008);
  • Musketeer (2014) and Thunder (2015) armoured personnel carriers.[15]

Torture at Salak and Israeli licensing

Amnesty International documented 101 cases of incommunicado detention and torture by Cameroonian forces fighting Boko Haram. 80 of these cases took place at two sites: the BIR's headquarters at Salak, near Maroua, and an intelligence facility in Yaoundé. Amnesty found no evidence that foreign military personnel took part.[3] African Arguments said its investigation found "no evidence of direct links" between the Israeli trainers and human rights violations. It also reported:

  • In March 2018 the Israeli human rights lawyer Eitay Mack petitioned the Supreme Court to cancel all export licences to the BIR. The court ruled a few months later but issued a gag order, so the outcome cannot be reported.
  • Mack argued that Moas, Zuckerman and their colleagues would need Israeli government licences, and that the payoff for "Israel" was Cameroon's open support "in international forums".
  • The Israeli defence ministry said only that export licences are "subject to constant scrutiny".[1]

Trade

The Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics records Israeli exports to Cameroon of $3.7 million in 2025 (2024: $2.7 million), and Israeli imports from Cameroon of $0.2 million in 2025 (2024: below $0.1 million).[16]

Migration and aliyah

The Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics does not list Cameroon separately in its table of immigrants by country of birth.[17]

Political interference

The Israeli role in Cameroon goes to the heart of the regime's survival. Jeune Afrique reported that the BIR was said to be trained with a view to holding out for at least 30 days against the rest of the regular army, which Biya has always distrusted. It also reported that in 2013 Heres blocked the appointment of a commander of the presidential guard in favour of one of his protégés.[14] The BIR answers to the presidency, not to the military chain of command.[2] African Arguments notes that the BIR's actions have drawn particular attention since the Anglophone conflict began in 2016.[1]

No credible sourced link between Jeffrey Epstein and Zionist or Israeli activity in Cameroon was found, so this page has no Epstein section.

See also

External links

Notes

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 Emmanuel Freudenthal and Youri van der Weide, Making a killing: Israeli mercenaries in Cameroon African Arguments, 23 June 2020.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Jeune Afrique, L'Israélien qui protégeait Biya Jeune Afrique, 2 December 2010.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Amnesty International, Cameroon's Secret Torture Chambers: Human Rights Violations and War Crimes in the Fight Against Boko Haram Amnesty International, July 2017 (critical).
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 Kulanu, Cameroon kulanu.org, accessed 21 October 2026 (Kulanu-side).
  5. ↑ Tamar Fox, How These Cameroonian Christians Became Jews JTA, 19 October 2016.
  6. ↑ Shloimy Galperin, Getting Central Africa's Rabbis Into One Room Isn't Easy Chabad.org, 10 June 2026.
  7. ↑ Alliance of Rabbis in Islamic States, The Rabbis rabbisalliance.org, accessed 21 October 2026 (Alliance of Rabbis in Islamic States-side).
  8. ↑ The Africa Report, Paul Biya, Israel's strongest ally in Africa? The Africa Report, 31 October 2023.
  9. ↑ Jeune Afrique, Paul Biya, meilleur allié africain d'Israël ? Jeune Afrique, 26 October 2023.
  10. ↑ Embassy of Israel in Cameroon, Bilateral relations embassies.gov.il, accessed 21 October 2026 (Israeli government-side).
  11. ↑ Embassy of Israel in Cameroon, Political and Economic embassies.gov.il, accessed 21 October 2026 (Israeli government-side).
  12. ↑ Reuters, Ex-IDF officer killed in Cameroon crash Ynetnews, 23 November 2010.
  13. ↑ AFP, Accident d'hélicoptère au Cameroun: Israël confirme la mort d'un ancien officier Jeune Afrique, 24 November 2010.
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 Jeune Afrique, Cameroun : Paul Biya sous protection israélienne Jeune Afrique, 19 November 2015.
  15. ↑ Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, SIPRI Arms Transfers Database SIPRI, accessed 20 October 2026.
  16. ↑ Central Bureau of Statistics (Israel), Foreign Trade Statistics Monthly, Table D1: Trade Countries – Imports and Exports CBS, December 2025 issue (library copy) (Israeli government-side).
  17. ↑ Central Bureau of Statistics (Israel), Statistical Abstract of Israel 2024, Table 2.55: Immigrants, by period of immigration, country of birth and last country of residence CBS, 2024 (Israeli government-side).
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