Martin ChomuTumenta:

General Martin Tumenta

 Did Gen. Martin Tumenta die of poisoning?

- Accusing fingers pointing towards France

The head of the UN multinational integrated peace keeping force in Bangui has died in Lagos, Nigeria of what family sources believe to be poisoning. General Martin Tumenta had earlier been flown to the USA from the Central African Republic in poor health condition.

                Doctors put him on chemotherapy thinking it was a cancer. But things got worse and he was later flown to Lagos, Nigeria where he hopped the twig.

                Critics see a French hand in the brigadier General’s death as France was said not to be comfortable with the excessive media coverage of the atrocities committed by French soldiers in the CAR capital, Bangui. It is said in some quarters that the French had even opposed Tumenta’s appointment in Bangui in the first place.

                Also, some observers say the French were instrumental in the hostile press the general suffered in Cameroon whilst he was in Bangui. The local press here did not relent in their onslaught against the general even when he took ill and later left for the USA.

                That the authorities stayed indifferent amid speculations in the press that the general had abandoned his post and escaped to an unknown destination was telling. The fact that some newspapers were already proposing the names of some francophone generals as likely replacements for the Anglophone Tumenta was suspect. 

                Family sources say the general was resolute not to return to Bangui even if he got well this because he sensed (military forces say) that they were going to finish with him.

                The source said when general Tumenta left Huston, USA a forth night ago he knew he wasn’t going to make it. He went to consult Nigeria’s Prophet TB Joshua whom he thought could do a miracle on his life. But he died even before the prophet really paid attention to him.

                Reports suggest it is easy to see a French hand in the brigadier General’s death. France was not comfortable with the “excessive media exposure of atrocities committed by French soldiers in Bangui by the general (there’s more to come).