Cameroon: Human remains allegedly sold to traffickers to make “caillou” drug

Two brothers were arrested after allegedly exhuming their cousin’s body, buried near Pitoa in Cameroon’s North Region two years earlier, to sell his bones. On October 10, 2026, one brother was detained in Ngousso, Yaoundé, carrying a bag of human remains and reportedly admitted that he had acted with his older brother. According to reports, the upper part of the skeleton had already been sold in Garoua for 3 million CFA francs, and the brothers hoped to sell the lower part for a similar amount. Lieutenant Claude Mboutou Abessolo said the bones were intended for traffickers who would use them to make “caillou,” an artisanal drug sold for about 5,000 CFA francs per gram.