Cameroon: president biya’s extended absence fuels governance debate

Paul Biya, who has led Cameroon since 1982 and stands as the world’s longest-serving head of state, is now 93 years old. It has been 48 days since he departed Cameroonian soil on June 7, embarking on what an official statement described as a “short private stay in Europe,” accompanied by his wife, Chantal Biya.

Mr. Biya’s health, given his frequent visits to Geneva, remains a constant subject of speculation, though the government has often refuted these rumors.

On June 18, the Minister of Communication, René Emmanuel Sadi, issued a statement specifically denying media reports that the Cameroonian leader was hospitalized in a Geneva clinic.

For Cameroon’s opposition, the president’s prolonged absence underscores a “glaring institutional vacuum,” as Mamadou Mota, Vice-President of the Movement for the Renaissance of Cameroon (MRC), articulated on Facebook this past Friday.

“Operating on autopilot”

In mid-July, Patricia Tomaïno Ndam Njoya, President of the Democratic Union of Cameroon (UDC), urged the government to establish “an impartial procedure for determining the temporary or definitive incapacitation” of the head of state.

However, James Fame Ndongo, a high-ranking member of the presidential party and Minister of Higher Education, dismissed accusations of a power vacuum on Tuesday. He asserted that “wherever he is, the head of state meticulously follows the files submitted to him (…) by his collaborators.”

Controversies surrounding a potential power vacuum in Cameroon are not new. The most recent instance occurred in late 2024, when Mr. Biya spent approximately fifty days outside the country.

Another opposition party, the Social Democratic Front (SDF), dryly remarked on Friday that the nation was “operating on autopilot.”

These recurrent absences, spanning over two decades, continually fuel the frustration felt by many Cameroonians regarding the government’s perceived inertia. “People are already exhausted from waiting,” acknowledged Viviane Ondoua Biwolé, a professor of public management at the University of Yaoundé.

She elaborated, “Firstly, because the current government has been in place for eight years, setting a record. Secondly, because we are emerging from an election with very mixed results. Many believe that after an election, it is time for renewal.”

Mr. Biya’s re-election to an eighth mandate in October 2025 triggered demonstrations that were violently suppressed, with the government admitting to “several dozen” fatalities without providing an exact toll.

The results, disputed by the opposition, also elicited a degree of reservation from Western diplomatic missions.

Two months later, in his December 31st address to the Nation, Mr. Biya pledged to form a new governmental team “in the coming days.”

However, seven months have passed, and the new government he announced has yet to materialize. This delay is compounded by numerous postponements of municipal and legislative elections, indefinitely extending the terms of incumbent officials.

The post-Biya era

Despite these issues, the Cameroonian government recently initiated some institutional changes. These included replacing the presidents of both parliamentary chambers in March and subsequently establishing a Vice-Presidential post through a constitutional reform in early May.

Yet, nearly three months after this reform, no Vice-President has been appointed. This prolonged anticipation has inevitably fueled further speculation.

In June, an individual appeared at the public radio headquarters in Yaoundé, attempting to present a document purported to be a presidential decree appointing the Vice-President of the Republic.

The counterfeit document bore presidential seals and a signature attributed to Mr. Biya, but alert journalists did not disseminate it, though it nonetheless contributed to the circulating rumors.

These institutional maneuvers only intensify speculation about the post-Biya era and appear to accelerate the race for his succession, which remains shrouded in uncertainty.

“There is, more or less visibly, a crisis at the top of the state among the president’s close associates,” stated Ms. Ondoua Biwolé.

Political scientist Stéphane Akoa corroborated this, noting, “Increasing indiscretions indicate quarrels among the various factions within his entourage.”

Behind one of these “factions” looms the influence of Chantal Biya, the First Lady, who is “increasingly involved in state affairs,” with “her name often cited in decision-making and high-level appointments,” Mr. Akoa observed.

Until a Vice-President is named, the responsibility falls to Senate President Aboubakary Abdoulaye to assume interim leadership in the event of a power vacuum, pending the organization of a presidential election.