A Cameroonian court has sentenced a former health minister to 20 years in prison for corruption over a fake contract to deliver mosquito nets to hospitals, legal sources said yesterday.
The country's special criminal court, charged with fighting high-level graft, on Monday found Urbain Olanguena Awono guilty of embezzling more than 80 million CFA francs (122,000 euros, $162,000).
Co-accused Yves Rodrigue Soue Mbella, who is on the run, was sentenced in absentia to life in prison.
Soue Mbella had won successive public contracts to supply the insecticide-treated mosquito nets to hospitals in northern Cameroon, but never delivered the anti-malaria treatment despite being paid in full by the government.