The condition and exact whereabouts of Cameroon’s President Paul Biya remain unclear Thursday, two days after the government was forced to announce Biya was alive in Geneva, Switzerland, in response to rumors on social media that he had died.

Biya has not been seen in public for more than five weeks, since he attended the Africa-China forum in Beijing in early September.

Cameroon’s Territorial Administration minister Paul Atanga Nji told residents of Massock, a village near the Atlantic coast, that Biya dispatched him to provide humanitarian assistance to victims of floods sweeping across the central African state.

Nji, like many Cameroon senior state functionaries, told civilians that Biya is in good health, and that information circulating on social and mainstream media about the 91-year-old president’s death is being spread by people who want to see Cameroon devolve into chaos.

“The president of our nation Cameroon cannot be dead,” Gregory Mewano, a member of Biya’s Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement party, said Thursday on Cameroon state radio. “And you find the prime minister in Germany with a whole entourage, the minister of interior taking care of internal politics and the minister of public works inspecting projects.”

Officials say Biya will return to Cameroon soon, but they have not said when. There was no indication he was unwell in Beijing. He was scheduled to attend a meeting of French and African leaders in Paris afterward, but he did not appear, and no reason was given for his absence.

Cameroon opposition and civil society groups say they are concerned about Biya’s absence and health, and ask government officials to present Biya to civilians instead of simply saying he is alive.

With elections only a year away, some groups say it is time to begin thinking about a new, much younger candidate who could take the country forward.

“We have had to make it clear to both national and international opinions that a number of opposition political parties are … consulting with regards to the happenings of Cameroon, and this rumor [about Biya’s death] is not an exception,” said Michael Ngwese Eke Ekosso, president of the opposition United Socialist Democratic Party. “Decisions will be arrived at with regards to the upcoming presidential elections.”

Some opposition political parties have proposed uniting behind Akere Muna, an English-speaking anti-corruption lawyer and good governance crusader, as a candidate in the October 2025 presidential election.

Muna, who is 72, said if elected, he would launch a three-year transitional period to lift Cameroon from Biya’s iron-fisted 42-year rule.

“Our profound reflection is that a non-renewable transition is essential,” Muna said. “The vision we are proposing is to strengthen democracy and governance, adopt a new constitution that incarnates the present and future aspirations of the people of Cameroon, and promote free and fair elections.”

If elected, Muna would be Cameroon’s first leader from the western regions where English is the primary language.

His supporters say having a president from that area may help end a seven-year insurgency by English-speaking armed groups, who say English-speakers in Cameroon are marginalized by the French-speaking majority.

Opposition parties blame Biya for not being able to solve the crisis.

Meanwhile, Cameroonians of all parties wait anxiously for concrete signs that Biya is alive and will be returning to his country.

Source: VOA

Cameroon’s government has banned the media from discussing the health of President Paul Biya, Africa’s second-longest-ruling leader, amid rumours the 91-year-old is gravely ill, according to a document obtained by AFP.

Biya, the world’s oldest leader, has not made a public appearance since early September, fuelling a swirl of rumours online that the veteran president’s health is failing.

“The head of state is the principal institution of the republic, and discussions on his condition are a matter of national security,” said the document addressed to regional governors, which was dated October 9 and signed by Territorial Administration Minister Paul Atanga Nji.

“All discussion in the media on the president’s condition is therefore officially banned.”

The document, which bore a red stamp reading “highly urgent”, added that anyone violating the order would “face the full force of the law”.

It ordered regional governors to create “monitoring cells” charged with tracking content in private media, including social networks.

Biya has been Cameroon’s president for more than 41 years, second in Africa only to 82-year-old Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, who has held power in Equatorial Guinea for 45 years.

Biya’s last public appearance was at the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation in Beijing last month.

He did not take part in the subsequent United Nations General Assembly opening in New York or a summit of French-speaking countries in Paris.

The president’s office issued a statement Tuesday saying Biya was in “excellent health”, condemning rumours to the contrary as “disinformation”.

He “is working and attending to his affairs in Geneva,” said a government spokesman, adding Biya would return to Cameroon “in the coming days”.

Biya’s public appearances have grown sparse in recent years — mainly rare televised speeches, pre-recorded and haltingly delivered, and family photos and videos showing him alongside his influential wife, Chantal.

Source: AFP

Recent reactions from Etoudi on the bill of health of President Paul Biya have still not dispelled all doubts. Biya’s return to Yaoundé the nation’s capital has been announced “in the very next few days,” according to Minister René Emmanuel Sadi’s terms. But senior officials contacted by Cameroon Intelligence Report today in Yaoundé say they are unsure of the president’s condition.

A Cameroonian diplomat in Geneva with strong ties to Etoudi told our correspondent that it’s a bit difficult to comment, because the information about President Biya is coming from different places and from different sources.

Our source who sued for anonymity furthered that cabinet ministers and ambassadors in Europe are now very careful with what they say.

On June 9, 2004, after being reported dead a few days earlier and having met the rumour with the same silence, Paul Biya reappeared on the tarmac of Yaoundé-Nsimalen airport, arriving—once again—from Geneva.

But his absence this time around comes at a crucial moment for Cameroon, a country that is facing a powerful secessionist movement in the two English speaking regions of the country.

The country’s second in command, Marcel Niat is also a living corpse and he is presently too weak to chair security meetings.

Cameroon Intelligence Report understands that the 91-year-old Biya mandated the Secretary General at the Presidency of the Republic Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh to deputize for him. There are questions now about whether Biya has completed the legal transfer of power to Ngoh Ngoh. In short, these are times that require strong leadership, not a lack thereof.

The general political temperature is gearing up and Barrister Akere Muna recently announced his 8-point plan for next year’s presidential election.  Muna made a strong presentation but avoided the issue of the president’s health and also who is in charge of state affairs.

The next presidential election is scheduled for October 2025.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

At least 15 people were killed and 10 others injured in a collision between a passenger bus and a truck in Cameroon’s South region Wednesday morning, according to a local official.

Prefect of Dja and Lobo division Damien Owono said the accident happened when the bus collided head-on with the truck coming from the opposite direction in the Kombe locality of the region.

“We woke up this early morning with this shocking news. There were 22 passengers and the driver on the bus. The 10 injured are being taken care of in the hospital. We ask the families to remain calm. It was an accident. Investigations are ongoing and will establish the responsibility. We ask road users to be more careful,” Owono told reporters after visiting the scene of the tragedy.

According to local police, the death toll is feared to rise as most of the injured people are in critical condition because of the serious burn injuries. Such accidents in Cameroon are often linked to the poor condition of roads and drivers’ ignorance.

Data from the Cameroonian Ministry of Transport show some 1,500 people die in road accidents each year in the Central African nation.

Source: Xinhuanet

Vincent Onana, former president of the Cameroon Football Federation (Fecafoot), passed away on October 8, 2024, at his home in Yaoundé, according to a report by the national broadcaster CRTV. Born in the Lekié department in the Central Region, Onana was elected president of Fecafoot in 1996 during an extraordinary general assembly, after serving as the director of stadium operations in Yaoundé.

During his tenure, Cameroon’s national football team qualified for the 1998 FIFA World Cup in France. However, just before the event, Onana was accused of fraud, leading to his dismissal and arrest. He subsequently spent two years in Kondengui Central Prison in Yaoundé before being released after a court ruling cleared him of the charges.

In 2004, he attempted to return to the Fecafoot presidency, expressing his desire to “restore the reputation” of Cameroonian football, which was facing challenges at the time. However, he eventually withdrew his candidacy, citing the electoral process as a “sham.” He was also a former physical education teacher and had coached football clubs such as Tarzan d’Obala and Mbalmayo Football Club.

Onana has also been an MP. In 2002, he was elected under the ruling Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement (CPDM)’s banner. He was reelected in 2013.

Source: Sbbc

As rumours continue to circulate about the health of the Cameroonian president, Cameroon’s Paris-based diplomat André Magnus Ekoumou says Biya is in Geneva.

For nearly a month, the health of Paul Biya, 91, has been the subject of widespread speculation, as the Cameroonian president has successively cancelled appearances at the United Nations General Assembly, the International Organisation of La Francophonie (OIF) summit, and the Sustainable Development forum in Hamburg, Germany.

While the Cameroonian diaspora was mobilising in the Paris suburbs, where Paul Biya was allegedly hospitalised at the Percy military hospital in Clamart, the rumours reached a new peak on 8 October with the broadcast, by South African channel ABS Africa TV, of the announcement of the head of state’s death.

A “completely baseless piece of news”

Contacted by Jeune Afrique on 8 October, André Magnus Ekoumou, Cameroon’s ambassador to France, stated, however, that “Paul Biya has never been hospitalised in Clamart or anywhere in France”. Expressing his displeasure at the spread of rumours, the diplomat also confirmed the information that the president “is currently in Geneva”.

He added that the head of state is “in good health”, while some of our sources close to the presidency have indicated that he is currently under medical supervision after complications caused by his diplomatic activity in July and August.

From Yaoundé, the Minister of Labour and Social Security, Grégoire Owona, also took to his X account to address the rumours of the president’s death. “Those who are trying, by various means, to deceive public opinion by announcing the death of the Cameroonian head of state must pay a high price for such a gross lie. Since they no longer have any human conscience, the appropriate institutions must take action against these impostors, no matter their origin or location. We are in a democracy, but malice and hatred have their limits!” he declared.

‘Baseless news’

Jacques Fame Ndongo, Secretary for Communications of the Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement and Minister of Higher Education, also penned a statement, in his own characteristic style: “This news is completely baseless. This phantasmagorical scheme must not shake the political maturity, clear-headedness, and patriotism of Cameroonians and our friends. Universal journalism relies on facts, not on fantasies or malicious news. It follows a rigorous approach inspired by experimental sciences, including observation, hypothesis, verification, and law, as Gaston Bachelard pointed out. Journalism is both an art, a technique, and a science.”

A segment of the political class called, on 8 October, for clarification from the civil cabinet of the presidency, led by Samuel Mvondo Ayolo, regarding the president’s true health status and the possibility of a vacancy of power. Noting the “prolonged absence” of Paul Biya and urging Cameroonians to “remain sufficiently cautious and vigilant,” the Cameroon Democratic Union, headed by MP Hermine Patricia Tomaïno Ndam Njoya, called on the presidency, the government, or “any other competent institution […] to take responsibility by providing official information to the people.”

Source: The Africa Report

President Biya’s family is now living in a well guarded house in France, it has been claimed.

Aides to the dictator have moved his family and a select band of relatives to France late yesterday. The move is said to have come about after the 91-year-old leader disappeared from public view.

Intelligence sources told Cameroon Intelligence Report that the Biya family is now under the protection of the French government, which effectively amounts to political asylum.

Cameroon Intelligence Report was also told that Biya’s family fear of chaos in Yaoundé the capital is one of the reasons why they have moved to Paris.

France has remained an ally of the regime since Biya took office from the late President Ahmadou Ahidjo in 1982.

Biya has not been seen in public since leaving Beijing on 8 September after attending the Forum on China-Africa Co-operation (FOCAC).

Government sources say he is sick and undergoing medical treatment in Paris or Geneva.

We gathered that a bad prostate operation in France reportedly weakened the Cameroon strong man.

“It’s over now for Mr. Biya” our source said, adding that the Biya family may not return to Cameroon even with his remains.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai with Intel files

In 2023, corruption cases in Cameroon’s public administration services cost the state over 114 billion CFA francs (more than 175 million euros). This is revealed in the economic report published by the National Anti-Corruption Authority (Conac), specifying that the phenomenon involves numerous sectors: taxation, customs, transport, police and gendarmerie, state property and land affairs, telecommunications, procurement and public works, among others. Published in English and French, the 454-page report highlights that the work is the result of the collaboration of 84 public and private entities, including 29 ministerial departments, 27 public establishments and companies, 14 jurisdictions and two civil society organizations.

The document takes into account the 7.548 complaints submitted to the Conac offices for the year 2023, which resulted in trials and investigations costing Yaoundé a total of 69 billion CFA francs (almost 106 million euros). In relation to the proceedings initiated, it should be noted, 23 sentences were issued, costing a total of 38,5 billion CFA francs (over 59 million euros). The cases of corruption detected in the public procurement sector led to the exclusion of 43 companies from tenders.

There are also cases of misappropriation of contributions intended for parents of students, the collection of salaries of deceased or immigrant people, a high number – 21,3 percent of the total reports – of misappropriations related to land disputes. There are also frequent cases of falsification in public employment and corruption during competitions, two aspects that represent 17,4 percent of the reports filed.

The report shows that the number of complaints filed in 2023 (7.548) is slightly higher than in 2022 (7.061). The 2024 Anti-Corruption Status Report will be presented next year.

Source: Nova News

It is being reported in France and Switzerland that Cameroon’s President is no more.

The 91-year-old dictator, who undertook a long tiring journey to China, might not be returning to his country in front of the plane.

Paul Biya, who has ruled Cameroon for almost 42 years, seems to have succumbed to the inevitable after a tough fight with prostate cancer which spread to other vital organs.

For many years, Mr. Biya has been a colony of diseases, with heart problems and memory failure stalking him like a stubborn shadow.

If this news gets confirmed, Mr. Biya will be remembered as a man who single-handedly destroyed a prosperous country handed over to him by the country’s first president, Ahmadou Ahidjo.

Once a buoyant nation, Cameroon is dealing with many development issues. The country’s economy has been in poor health for decades, causing many young Cameroonians to look outwards for opportunities.

Youth unemployment is very high and salaries are very low. Cameroonians have been transformed into “the roving Jews” of Africa by a man they thought would lead them to the land of promise when he took power in 1982.

Since taking over power in 1982, Mr. Biya has spent more time, money and energy just to maintain himself in power. The country has the worst roads on the continent and health care is unreliable.

Currently, there are reports of troop movement in Yaoundé. In the morning, helicopters could be seen and heard flying over the nation’s capital.

According to a military source, authorities in Yaoundé know that Mr. Biya’s time is over and the military might be preparing to take over or to ensure that chaos does not ensue when the news of the dictator’s death reaches Yaoundé.

Cameroon Concord News Group’s correspondent in France and Yaoundé are keeping an eye on the situation. Our Yaoundé city reporter who spoke to a senior military officer in the morning of Sunday said that the news was not good. Biya might be breathing his last and it is no surprise that the news of his death is already spreading.

Our Yaoundé correspondent also quoted the military source as saying that it was up to Cameroonians to urge the authorities to reveal the whereabouts of their president.

The senior military officer is also quoted as saying that people around the dictator were doing much to hide the truth and to intimidate the population.

This is a developing story.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai