Marie Catherine Abena
Marie Catherine Abena (March 20, 1954 – March 19, 2014) was a Cameroonian civil servant, politician, and author. She served as Secretary of State at the Ministry of Secondary Education from December 2004 to 2009 in the government led by Prime Minister Ephraïm Inoni.
She was born in Yaoundé, Cameroon, and came from Awaé in the Centre Region. She was the eldest of nine children. Her mother was Manga Pauline Jacqueline and her father, Abena Hubert Claude, was a civil administrator and former prefect.
Abena studied at the École Normale Supérieure in Yaoundé and began her career as a high school teacher. Before her 2004 appointment, she worked as a provincial inspector of French pedagogy in the Centre Province, then led the Yaoundé resource center, and later became the national inspector of French pedagogy.
On January 8, 2010, she was jailed at Kondengui Central Prison as part of Operation Sparrowhawk. She was accused of embezzling 250 million CFA francs, along with nine others. After a ruling by the Mfoundi High Court, she remained in pretrial detention. She claimed innocence and went on a hunger strike, which harmed her health and led to extended hospital stays.
Marie Catherine Abena died on March 19, 2014, at CNPS Hospital in Yaoundé, at the age of 59.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 18:03 (CET).