Jean-Marie Benoît Balla (5 May 1959 – 31 May 2017) was a Cameroonian Catholic bishop who served as Archbishop of Yaoundé until his death in 2017.

[3] Interpol commissioned a second autopsy by two German doctors who reported that "no trace of violence was found on the body of the deceased", after which the Central Appeal Court determined that “drowning is the most probable cause of death of the bishop".

[4] On 3 August 2017, Joseph Akonga Essomba, the interim administrator of the diocese, claimed Balla's murderers were being protected by government officials.

He claimed that Balla attacked gay priests, who later pretended to mourn him, and that it was his opposition to homosexuality that had prompted his murder.

[5] Catholics in Cameroon whose murders remained unsolved include Yves Plumey, Archbishop emeritus of Garoua (1991); the editor of the Catholic daily L'Effort camerounnais Joseph Mbassi (1988); Jesuit theologian Englebert Mveng, SJ (1995); and the French sisters Germaine Marie Husband and Marie Léone Bordy (1992).