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The non-appearance of Cameroon’s nonagenarian president in public for the last 30 days pushed the Central African country into a state of uncertainty and speculation.
President Paul Biya, 91, in power since 1982, was expected in New York last month for the UN General Assembly but failed to show up. He also did not appear at last week’s La Francophonie summit in France.
Across Cameroon, these two significant no-shows have stoked speculation about Biya’s health and whereabouts. The government on Tuesday said he was in good health but did not disclose his location.
Cameroonians have not heard officially from their head of state since Sept. 8, when the presidency announced that Biya and wife Chantal had left Beijing after participating in the FOCAC China-Africa summit (pictured).
Since then, Biya’s whereabouts remain a mystery. The president typically spends a significant portion of the year overseas, but his latest absence has sparked fears from Cameroonians across the country and on social media that he died, something the government referred to as “pure fantasy.”
Cameroon is currently dealing with a drawn-out armed separatist conflict in its English-speaking regions and a counterinsurgency operation against Boko Haram in the north. Analysts think a power struggle in Biya’s absence would put the country at a high risk of undergoing a polycrisis driven by geostrategic concerns in early 2025.
— Amindeh Blaise Atabong in Yaoundé, Cameroon
