Cameroon’s Aging Autocrat Paul Biya Returns After Two Months of Absentee Rule
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President Paul Biya’s return to Yaoundé after a lavish ten-week European retreat reignites debate about his health and the undemocratic concentration of power in Cameroon.
President Paul Biya landed at Yaoundé's international airport on Thursday after more than ten weeks spent in Europe, a trip emblematic of the disconnect between Cameroon’s entrenched elite and its struggling people. The 93-year-old autocrat, who has clung to power since 1982, left the country on June 7 for what his office called a “brief private stay in Europe.” Instead, his absence stretched into the longest in his decades-long rule, fueling speculation about his declining health and the dangerous lack of democratic succession in Cameroon.
Biya, who began his eighth term in November after a widely disputed election in October, avoided public scrutiny by not appearing as he exited the aircraft and refusing to address the press. Instead, he merely waved from his vehicle as loyalists and cronies welcomed him, highlighting the regime’s opacity and lack of accountability.
The president’s health has long been a matter of public concern, as he routinely spends extended periods in France and Switzerland, delegating power to senior party insiders and family members. Cameroon’s constitution, designed to protect the ruling class, does not prevent the president from abandoning the country for months at a time, and the nation still lacks a vice president—a position Biya can create or dissolve at his whim, further entrenching his personal grip on power.
Opposition leaders have condemned the government’s “autopilot” mode and slammed the recent parliamentary move to reinstate the vice-president post as a cynical “power grab,” since the office’s authority is dictated solely by Biya. This maneuver exemplifies the regime’s disregard for genuine democratic reforms.
Biya’s decades of authoritarian rule have coincided with persistent security crises, including Boko Haram attacks in the north and separatist struggles in the west, as well as economic stagnation that has left Cameroon’s youth marginalized and hopeless. Protests following his 2023 re-election were met with deadly force, resulting in at least 16 deaths according to official figures, underscoring the deep rift between the country’s aging dictator and its vibrant, youthful population.