Gendarmes in Yaoundé discovered 20 people crammed in an earth-floor basement at Montée Mosquée, Ngousso, in the city’s 5th arrondissement at dawn on 6 September 2026, four days after police freed 15 girls from a barricaded compound in nearby Essos, in operations now tied to Nigerian pastor Ekedi Samuel Kenechukwu and Mercy of God Ministries.
The Ngousso group was 10 women, eight men and two children aged six and seven. Neighbours had flagged odd activity at a closed concession. Officers moved before sunrise. The cellar doubled as an unlicensed place of worship.
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Yaoundé V sub-prefect François Mabaya Essomba went to the scene to restore order as residents reacted with anger at another hidden congregation in a crowded quarter.
The Essos raid on 2 September 2026, led by the 16th police district on Rue des Pavés, found girls aged from two to 15, dormitories, food stores, clothes, toys and about 100 hard drives. Cameroon Radio Television and the Ministry of Social Affairs spoke of about 18 children, mostly girls, including an 18-month-old baby.
Viral posts had claimed more than 41 children. Two women who had been looking after the minors were detained.
Investigators are testing whether Essos and Ngousso are one network. Checks have spread to Nkoabang and Mimboman.
Social media has also accused the preacher of sequestration, child abduction, sexual violence, extortion and indoctrination.
Those claims remain allegations. Several suspects are in custody. No completed court verdict was published with the raid reports.
Mercy of God Ministries is not new to Cameroonian files. In April 2020 the prefect of Mefou-et-Afamba shut the revival church at Nkoabang for operating without authorisation.
About 100 worshippers, mostly women, were told to leave. An unfinished building on the land was halted.
Security units did not find Ekedi Samuel Kenechukwu, also styled Master Prophet E.K. Samuel, during that search. The same name later surfaced as the suspected organiser of a minor-trafficking ring in the Essos case.
Social posts that speak of “25 missing persons in his properties” flatten two separate counts and treat every person found as a confirmed missing-person file.
The documented total from the two Yaoundé operations is 35 people in confined spaces, plus the disputed child tally at Essos. Origin, consent and the true purpose of the compounds are still the work of the inquiry.
The grim pattern is a clandestine ministry that survived one shutdown and reappeared in basements and walled yards.
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Whether Nigerian pastor Yaoundé raids end in trafficking charges or a narrower case of illegal worship will depend on what the children, the adults and the seized drives tell the courts.
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Quadri Olaitan is a journalist and contributor to Freelanews.com, covering news, public affairs, and human-interest stories.
