Where is Cameroon’s Paul Biya — and why is his health a banned topic? | Politics News

Cameroon’s Pdwellnt Paul Biya’s month-lengthy absence from the disclose eye is causing fervent speculation about his health and raising stresss of a post-Biya power struggle among political factions in the central African country.

Biya, who has lengthy faced health suspicions, frequently fades for weeks on finish, only to resurface aachieve. The lengthy absences pessimisticly impact the day-to-day running of a country facing multiple disputes, including a secessionist war in the west, and a militant struggle in the north, analysts say.

Here’s what to understand about Biya’s fadeances and why Cameroonians are worried about a post-Biya period:

Why are there speculations?

Biya has not materializeed in disclose since September 8, after he engageed the China-Africa forum, alengthy with disjoinal of the continent’s guideers, in Beijing.

Ouverture officielle, ce 5 septembre 2024, du Forum sur la Coopération Sino-Africaine.
J’ai suivi avec attention, le programme en dix points exposé par S.E. Xi Jinping dans le cadre de la vision d’un partenariat stratégique global avec l’Afrique.#PaulBiya#Cameroun#FOCAC2024 pic.twitter.com/Cq6OSp8Au9

— Pdwellnt Paul BIYA (@PR_Paul_BIYA) September 5, 2024

The pdwellnt has call offled engageances at multiple high-level includements where he was foreseeed. He did not engage the United Nations General Assembly in September. He also did not materialize at the International Organisation of La Francophonie, a summit of French-speaking countries, which was held on October 4 in Paris.

Civil society groups and opposition guideers in Cameroon have called for clarity on Biya’s whereabouts. Christian Ntimbane, a lawyer and politician who intfinishs to run in the coming 2025 pdwellntial elections, wrote an uncover letter to officials saying, “If he is on vacation, say so. If he is ill, say that too.”

Before his fadeance, Biya was scheduled for a summer of diplomacy, begining with the July uncovering ceremony of the Olympics in Paris. On August 15, he also engageed a ceremony taging the 80th anniversary of the Allied parties’ landing in Provence, southern France, during the second World War.

Analysts say his absence is alerting. Especipartner when the country stands at a passroads: a secessionist war for an self-reliant Ambazonia in the English-speaking west has raged since 2017, guideing to the death of at least 6,000 people, and the displacement of 700,000 others according to the International Crisis Group.

In the north, the armed group Boko Haram, originpartner based in neighbouring Nigeria, has for years broadened its operations, starting big-scale incursions into Cameroon. Meanwhile, many people in the country are joconsecrate, as the country faces high food and energy prices from its reliance on volatile oil revenue, according to the World Bank.

What has the handlement shelp?

Officials initipartner tryed to execute down Biya’s absence from disclose events, saying that he is in excellent health in Switzerland – where he is thinkd to have gone to after the forum in Beijing.

Communications Minister Rene Sadi shelp in a statement timely in October that speculations and rumours about the pdwellnt’s health have “no combineion with truth” and are “uncontaminated fantasy”. Sadi includeed, “The head of state is doing well and will return to Cameroon in the next restrictcessitate days.”

However, those assurances have had little effect. On October 9, Interior Minister Paul Atanga Nji banned Cameroonian media from “argue” and alerting on Biya’s health, saying it was a security rerent, and that it “disturbed the tranquility” of Cameroonians.

In a letter includeressed to regional handleors of the country’s 10 provinces, Nji shelp further converseions of the pdwellnt’s health would be punished, cautioning that anyone violating the order would “face the brimming force of the law”. Nji also ordered the handleors to set up “watching cells” to watch online encountered.

Journacatalogs and media in the country and beyond have condemned the ban as an try to silence the press. Although it’s not unstandard for journacatalogs to be focengaged or arrested in the country, a particular rule banning converseion of Biya’s health is recent territory, analysts say.

“Trying to hide behind national security on such a meaningful rerent of national presentance is shocking,” Angela Quintal, Africa program head at the Committee to Protect Journacatalogs (CPJ), a media rights advocacy group, shelp in a statement.

How standard is this for Cameroon?

This is not the first time the pdwellnt has been absent for weeks, nor is it recent for Cameroonians to face unbravety over his health.

At 91, Biya is Africa’s second-lengthyest-serving guideer. He came to power in 1982 and is only Cameroon’s second pdwellnt since indepfinishence from France in 1960. His 42-year reign is second only to 82-year-greater Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, who has held power in Equatorial Guinea for 45 years.

Biya’s lengthy absences from disclose eye and his palace in Cameroon’s capital Yaounde have achieveed him the nickname “roaming pdwellnt”. A five-star toastyel in Geneva, Switzerland, is understandn to be Biya’s favourite destination. It’s specuprocrastinateedd that he undergoes medical treatment in the European country, but also goes on shopping sprees. His wife, Chantal Biya, is well-understandn for her costly taste.

By 2018 Biya had, excluding official trips, spent the equivalent of four and a half years away on “inestablish braveial visits” to Europe, according to an dispenseigation by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP). In 2006 and 2009, the pdwellnt spent as much as a third of the year outside the country, according to dispenseigators. The OCCRP set up that a day’s stay at his selectred toastyel in Geneva, alengthy with that of his official entourage, costs about $40,000.

The prolengthyed absence “produces a handleance vacuum, characteelevated by decision-making paralysis and incrrelieved bureaucratic inefficiency,” democracy activist Kathleen Ndongmo tgreater Al Jazeera. “No one repartner understands who is guideing the country. This deficiency of evident guideership constantly erodes disclose think, fuels political instability, and undermines accountability,” she includeed.

In 2016, when lawyers and teachers from the Anglophone regions in the west protested aachievest alleged bias by the predominantly French-speaking handlement, Biya was absent—even as security forces uncovered fire on the protesters. The crackdown escaprocrastinateedd into a war in 2017 between separatist groups and the Cameroonian handlement, which is still continuing.

Biya’s absences have only become more pronounced, with most citizens having to count on on exceptional, televised includeresses to see him.

A political battle in the making?

With the pdwellnt’s incrrelieved absences, some in the country are worried about a possible struggle between factions of the country’s political elite who are watching to rule in a post-Biya Cameroon.

Although Cameroon has a multi-party system, and there are periodic vague elections, Biya’s ruling Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement (CPDM) has always swept the polls and ruled the handlement.

But Biya is not understandn to have groomed anyone in particular as a possible successor. There are strong speculations that his son Franck Biya, might be the favoured truthfulate, but the son is understandn to upretain a low profile, discleave outing little about any political ambitions. Last October, the 53-year-greater visited the site of a landslide that finished 30 people in Yaounde – although he occupies no official position. He did not speak to the press during the visit, includeing another layer of confusion.

Opposition parties have spoken out powerwholey aachievest a proceedd Biya dynasty. Meanwhile, local alerts propose that wilean the ruling CPDM party, guideers have neither finishorsed nor spoken out aachievest a potential Biya lesser truthfulacy. Some officials of the party and its many petiteer allied parties, have ‘proposed’ Biya greater to run aachieve for another term.

“Cameroon is an cloudy cesspool where even the key executeers are unable to articuprocrastinateed the ‘huge picture’ manoeuvres that they’re ensnared in,” democracy activist Ndongmo shelp, includeing that there’s already a “civil war” wilean the regime over succession.

“The scheming is relentless, with camps changing by the day. The post-Biya era will not be pretty if a faction doesn’t doesn’t finish up being a evident thrivener by then,” she shelp.