Madam Mboutchouang to be entombed at Mvomeka’a

After much controversy over where to bury the mother of First Lady Chantal Biya, the Presidency on Monday put an end to all rumours when it announced Biya’s mother-in-law will be buried Friday, October 17 in Mvomeka’a, South region of the country.

The death of Mboutchouang nee Ndongo Mengolo Rosette Marie, mother of Chantal Biya, was announced by the Civil Cabinet of the Presidency October 2. She died in South Africa after a “period of ill-health.”

Her demise was immediately followed by controversy over where she will be interred. According to reports, the family was split over whether Madam Mboutchouang should be laid to rest in Badenkop (her husband’s native village), Nanga Eboko (her birth place) or Mvomeka’a (native village of President Biya).

According to the official funeral programme released by the Presidency, the corpse is expected in Yaounde late Monday from South Africa. She will be buried on Friday October 17, at 3pm in Biya’s native village of Mvomeka’a and not in Badenkop, village of the deceased’s husband. The presidency insists the interment will take place in strict privacy.

Madam Mboutchouang was a strong supporter of the ruling CPDM party headed by her son-in-law (Biya). Since 2007, she was the mayor of Bangou municipality in the Hauts-Plateaux division of the western region of Cameroon. In 2013, she was re-elected during the parliamentary and municipal elections of September 30.

Just like her daughter, Chantal, the decease was also a beauty queen in her heydays. Soon after independence of Cameroon in 1967, Mboutchouang was crowned “Beauty Queen” of the Eastern Region. Simply put: she was Miss-Bertoua 1967.