## Facts

- Elizabeth Simeni Ngengwe, a citizen of Cameroon, is an Anglophone Bamileke woman who married a Francophone Bikom man.
- After her husband died in 2000, her in-laws subjected her to widowhood rituals for about two months, including confinement in their home, shaving her head with a broken bottle, forced undressing, separation from her children, and forcing her to sleep on the ground.
- The in-laws confiscated her and her husband’s property and closed their bank account.
- After she escaped with her children, the in-laws later demanded she marry her late husband’s brother or pay the “bride price.”
- When she refused, the in-laws knocked her down, beat her, and threatened to kill her and take her children if she did not comply or pay.
- She received hospital treatment and did not report the attack to police, believing authorities would treat it as a family matter and not intervene.
- She hid for months, left Cameroon using another person’s passport to enter Canada, and later entered the United States to join family.
- The record included country-conditions evidence indicating discrimination against women in Cameroon and limited protection for widows and victims of forced marriage.

## Issues

1. Whether “Cameroonian widows” is a cognizable particular social group for asylum purposes.
2. Whether substantial evidence supported the agency’s finding that Ngengwe did not suffer past persecution by persons the government was unable or unwilling to control.
3. Whether the agency properly evaluated whether she had an objectively reasonable fear of future persecution if returned to Cameroon.

## Decision

- The Eighth Circuit granted the petition for review and remanded.
- The court held the agency erred in rejecting “Cameroonian widows” as a particular social group where widowhood and gender are immutable characteristics and the record showed widows are treated as a distinct group in Cameroon.
- The court held substantial evidence did not support the agency’s conclusion that Cameroon was willing and able to protect her from her in-laws.
- The court directed the agency to reassess past persecution by considering the cumulative effect of physical abuse, detention-like confinement, coercion, threats, and economic deprivation.
- The court directed the agency to reevaluate her fear of future persecution, including the continuing threats and whether “bride price” payment or compliance would realistically end the risk.

## Legal Principles

- A “particular social group” may be defined by a common immutable characteristic, including gender-linked and status-based characteristics such as widowhood, when the record shows the group is recognized and targeted in the relevant society.
- Persecution analysis must consider cumulative harm and may include nonphysical coercion and serious economic deprivations, not only discrete episodes of physical injury.
- Persecution by non-state actors can satisfy asylum standards if the applicant shows the government is unable or unwilling to control the persecutors; credible testimony and corroborating country conditions can establish futility of seeking police protection.
- A well-founded fear of future persecution requires an objectively reasonable basis based on past harm, threats, and country conditions, and cannot rest on unsupported assumptions that compliance with abusive demands will eliminate risk.

## Conclusion

The Eighth Circuit vacated the agency’s denial in relevant part and remanded because the agency improperly rejected “Cameroonian widows” as a particular social group and inadequately analyzed state protection, past persecution based on cumulative harms, and the objective reasonableness of Ngengwe’s fear of future persecution.


Ngengwe v. Mukasey, 543 F.3d 1029 (8th Cir. 2008)