John Ngu Foncha
Cameroonian politician

John Ngu Foncha (21 June 1916 – 10 April 1999) was a Cameroonian politician, who served as 5th Prime Minister of Cameroon.
Career
Foncha was born in Bamenda. He founded the Kamerun National Democratic Party (KNDP) in 1955 and became Premier of the British Cameroons on 1 February 1959. He held that position until 1 October 1961, when the region, renamed West Cameroon, merged into a federation with Francophone Cameroon.
From 1 October 1961 to 13 May 1965, Foncha concurrently served as 5th Prime Minister of Cameroon and Vice-president of the Federal Republic of Cameroon. He held the latter title until 1970.
In 1994, he led a delegation of the Southern Cameroons National Council (SCNC) to the United Nations to request its backing of the movement's drive for greater autonomy in Cameroon's two English-speaking provinces. His grandson is Jean-Christian Foncha.
He died in Bamenda on 10 April 1999 at the age of 82.
Gallery
References
Ndi, Anthony (16 March 2014).
The public source identifies “John Ngu Foncha” as cameroonian politician. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around John, Foncha and Cameroonian.
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Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Mar 26, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q174133. VIAF identifies the subject as 11539734. The Library of Congress control number is n94077363. 2 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1916, 1999, 1955 and 1959.
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This entry incorporates text from “John Ngu Foncha” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.