Tough negotiations are underway in Geneva, Switzerland, where Cameroon’s President, Paul Biya, is fighting for his life.

It is clearly emerging that things are pointing south for the 91-year-old Biya who has been battling many diseases for some time now, and even his own ministers have begun organizing prayer sessions.

The French are working hard to find a successor who will protect French interest and guarantee peace to Mr. Biya’s family which is considered by many Cameroonians as having illegally benefitted from the massive corruption scheme Mr. Biya has run for almost 42 years.

In this regard, top military officials have been called to Geneva, including the head of the Brigade d’Intervention Rapid (BIR). Some senior government officials such as Louis-Paul Motaze are already in Geneva where they are being briefed on actions which will follow once Biya breathes his last.

The Senate President, Niat Njifenji was also supposed to be in Geneva, but given his state of health, he has been left out of the negotiations. His deputy, Abubakary Aboubakar, is also taking part in the negotiations.

It is being rumored in Yaoundé that 63-year-old Aboubakary will run the transition while Frank Biya or Motaze could become the CPDM’s candidate in the presidential election which will follow Biya’s death.

There is a lot of water going under the bridge and some CPDM stalwarts are arguing that they would not embrace any candidate imposed on them by the West.

Cameroon’s situation mirrors what happened in Côte d’Ivoire in 1994 when Houphouet Boigny died and in Togo and Gabon when Gnassingbe Eyadema and Omar Bongo died.

In all three cases, the French delayed the announcement of the deaths of those leaders until a French-dictated solution was found. In Togo, the speaker of the house, who was the constitutional next in line, was sent out on a fake mission and once the announcement was made, the country’s airspace was closed, ensuring that the speaker was kept out of the political equation, making it easy for Faure Eyadema, the late president’s son, to take over despite protests by several ECOWAS countries.

In Gabon, it was a similar scenario where Ali Bongo, who has recently been ousted in a military coup, succeeded his father.

The West has the nasty habit of imposing leaders in French-speaking African countries. In Chad, French President Emmanuel Macron had to rush to Ndjamena, the country’s capital at the height of COVID-19 to ensure that the country’s current president got installed following the assassination of his father, Idris Deby. A similar scenario also occurred in the Democratic Republic of Congo following the assassination of Laurent Désire Kabilla.

Cameroonians should be vigilant. Biya is no more or he is dying and the delay in the announcement of his death is because the West is cooking up something for the country.

Cameroonians must reject a West-imposed political solution as it will never serve the interest of the ordinary Cameroonian.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

In 2023, nearly 450 ransom kidnappings were recorded in the English-speaking regions of North-West and South-West Cameroon, both deeply affected by the ongoing crisis. This figure is more than double that of 2022, when around 200 kidnappings were documented. These statistics come from a report published in September 2024 by the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime and the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (Acled). The report reveals that in 2018, approximately 40 kidnappings were registered, followed by a slight drop in 2019. However, since 2020, the number of abductions has steadily increased, peaking in 2023.

Analysts from these organizations attribute this rise to a reduction in financial support from the diaspora to separatist fighters. Deprived of this backing, armed groups have turned to ransom kidnappings to fund their operations. ” In response to the reduced international financial support, separatist groups increasingly kidnap civilians to fund their operations,” the report states.

The document also notes that at the start of armed conflicts in 2017, more than 89% of attacks targeting civilians were attributed to government forces. However, separatists have gradually intensified their attacks on civilians, reaching nearly 48% of political violence in 2020. “This elevation in civilian targeting, including a steep rise in abductions and kidnapping for ransom in 2022 and 2023, further compounded the waning support from both the diaspora and local civilians,” the study highlights.

In addition to the loss of external support due to the kidnappings, separatists have also seen their popularity dwindle among local populations. “Although effective from a fundraising perspective, the abductions diminished support from local populations and many diaspora supporters,” the report specifies.

Regarding kidnapping targets, separatists primarily choose individuals who are “politically influential, wealthy, or both.” They also abduct ordinary people, though ransom amounts depend on the victim’s profile, wealth, and vulnerability to abduction. Additionally, members of the security forces and the military remain prime targets for the separatists.

Source: Sbbc

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