Paul Biya, Cameroon’s 93-year-old president, has now spent 49 days outside the country—matching his longest absence of 2024. Since departing for a private trip to Europe on June 7, he hasn’t made a public appearance. In Yaoundé newsrooms, the silence speaks volumes, and unease is growing.
Echoes of 2024: A familiar yet unsettling pattern
Reports suggest Biya is currently staying in a Geneva hotel, just as he did last year. The government moved quickly to dispel rumors, with Communications Minister René Emmanuel Sadi denying on June 18 that the president was hospitalized in a Geneva clinic.
Yet no recent photographs or videos have emerged to confirm his presence abroad—or his wellbeing. The absence of visual proof only deepens the mystery, leaving many to question the official narrative.
On Sunday, during a Droit de Réponse broadcast on Equinoxe TV, an Rdpc party activist, Lucien Bidima, claimed to have visited Biya at the InterContinental Geneva. Bidima described the president as “in excellent shape,” fully engaged in his duties. However, his account lacked any tangible evidence, fueling suspicions of a staged PR exercise.
Chantal Biya’s rising influence amid a constitutional void
What sets this absence apart is the growing role of First Lady Chantal Biya. Multiple reports indicate she is increasingly involved in state affairs, with her name even surfacing in key government appointments. Her consistent presence alongside the president during his Swiss stays suggests that access to power may now be filtered through her.
Cameroon’s constitutional framework further complicates the situation. With no vice president in place, the Senate President, Aboubakary Abdoulaye, is constitutionally mandated to assume interim leadership in case of a power vacuum. Yet this provision has never been tested in such a scenario, leaving political observers deeply uneasy.
The uncertainty over Biya’s whereabouts—and the potential implications for governance—has only intensified an already tense political climate. Whether this marks a turning point or just another pause in his long presidency remains unclear, but the atmosphere is anything but calming.
