Residents of Douala, Cameroon took several photos of a police car with Mandarin writing on it in January. Locals said that they have seen the vehicle, driven by Cameroonian police officers, in a neighbourhood with a large number of Chinese businesses on several occasions since late 2022. Our team decided to investigate, to find out where this vehicle came from.

On January 12, a photo of a vehicle was published on the "Nzui Manto Yi sep sep" Facebook page along with the caption (in French): "[Cameroonian President] Paul Biya’s regime has sold Cameroon to China. [...] Chinese police patrol Akwa, the Chinese business district [in Douala, Cameroon]."

In this photo, you can see the word “police” written in French and Mandarin on the back door of the vehicle. There’s a logo on the front door that seems to include both the Cameroonian and Chinese flags as well as the letters "CCPCCCC". There’s also writing in Mandarin that translates roughly as the "Centre for cooperation between the Chinese community and the police of the Chinese Chamber of Commerce in Cameroon.”

I’m not happy to see a vehicle with Chinese writing on it circulating in Cameroon. I don’t think that a Cameroonian police vehicle could circulate in China.

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