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