Annie Noëlle Bahounoui Batende
Annie Noëlle Bahounoui Batende (born January 25, 1963, in Douala) is a Cameroonian magistrate. Since August 10, 2020, she has been the head of the Special Criminal Court (TCS), and she is the first woman to hold this position since the court was created in 2012.
She is the daughter of Léon Bahounoui Batende, a former senior civil servant who worked in Customs and in banking. She finished high school in Yaoundé and studied law in Paris, earning a DESS. She returned to Cameroon, initially failed the ENAM exam, worked as a notary and a legal adviser, and then passed ENAM on a second try, joining the school in 1988. After training, she began her career as a public prosecutor.
Her career included roles as deputy prosecutor in Nkongsamba, president of the Court of First Instance of Bonanjo in Douala, and president of the courts of first and high instance in Mbalmayo. In 2010 she was appointed vice-president of the Southern Court of Appeal. In 2012 she joined the Special Criminal Court as an investigating judge, and in 2017 she became its vice-president. She was appointed head of the TCS by presidential decree, replacing Emmanuel Ndjérè.
In 2014, during a hearing, she ordered the pre-trial detention of Louis Bapès Bapès, who was the Minister of Secondary Education at the time, placing him in Kondengui prison.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 14:00 (CET).