Cameroon’s president is in “excellent” health, senior officials have insisted after a long public absence fueled widespread speculation about the 91-year-old leader’s health.
President Paul Biya has not been seen in public since September 8, when he participated in a China-Africa discussion board in Beijing.
Since then, he has missed events he was supposed to attend, such as the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
But in a statement, the head of Cameroon’s civilian cabinet said Biya was fine and condemned “mischievous individuals” speculating about the president’s health and his “possible death.”
The statement comes after days of opposition parties and civil society groups demanding information on Biya’s health and exact whereabouts.
“The head of state continues to exercise his functions in Geneva and has never left the [Swiss] city following his visit to Beijing,” said Samuel Mvondo Ayolo, director of the civil cupboard, on Wednesday evening.
Biya has long been criticized for the time he spends outside the country – and in Switzerland in particular.
In 2018, the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) reported that since coming to power in 1982, Biya had spent the equivalent of four and a half years traveling abroad.
The Intercontinental Hotel in Geneva would be his favorite vacation spot.
In a separate statement, government spokesperson René Sadi said Biya would return to Cameroon “in the coming days.”
He called reports of Biya’s poor health “pure fantasy.”
After 42 years in power, Biya is one of Africa’s longest-serving leaders.
Under his rule, Cameroon moved from a distinctive one-party state to multi-party politics, but it was also marked by endemic corruption.
Democratic gains were also reversed, leading to the abolition of presidential term limits in 2008.
Cameroon is also in the grip of a secessionist war which killed more than 6,000 people in the west of the country.
The source