Cameroonian President Paul Biya, 91, is in good health, the government said in a statement Tuesday, calling widespread reports to the contrary “pure fantasy.”
Mr. Biya has not been seen in public since attending a China-Africa forum in Beijing in early September. His failure to appear as planned at a summit in France last weekend fueled speculation that the nonagenarian was unwell.
“Rumors of all kinds have circulated in conventional media and social networks about the state of health of the president,” government spokesperson René Sadi said in the statement. “The government unequivocally states that these rumors are pure fantasy…and hereby formally denies.”
Opposition parties and civil society groups have called for an update on Mr. Biya’s health and his exact location.
After Beijing, Mr. Biya made a private visit to Europe, Mr. Sadi said. “The head of state is in good health and will return to Cameroon in the coming days.
In the absence of a clear succession plan, Mr. Biya’s death would lead to further political turmoil in West and Central Africa, which has seen eight coups since 2020 and several other military attempts to overthrow governments.
His recent absence from the meeting of leaders of French-speaking countries in Paris was the subject of many remarks during the two-day event, according to three non-Cameroonian African ministers who attended.
“He is over 90 years old, he has not been involved in current affairs for a long time, but if he dies, the situation risks getting out of control,” said one of the ministers, speaking on condition of anonymity.
“No one prepared for what happened next. We don’t know what Cameroon would be like without Paul Biya.”
Cocoa and oil producer Cameroon, which has had only two presidents since its independence from France and Britain in the early 1960s, is in the grip of a secessionist war that has left thousands dead and a violent Boko Haram insurgency in the north of the country.
