Cameroon's Paul Biya Returns After 2.5 Months Abroad as Health and Succession Questions Mount
Updated
Updated · The New York Times · Aug 20
Cameroon's Paul Biya Returns After 2.5 Months Abroad as Health and Succession Questions Mount
3 articles · Updated · The New York Times · Aug 20
Summary
Paul Biya returned to Yaounde on Thursday after 2.5 months abroad, ending a stay in Switzerland that intensified questions over the 93-year-old president’s health and succession plans.
State media showed Biya landing, shaking hands with officials and leaving the airport by car, though he had not appeared on camera during what his office had described only as a “brief private stay.”
Cameroon banned public discussion of Biya’s health in 2024 as speculation over his repeated absences grew; in power since 1982, he is known for long overseas stays that have drawn scrutiny.
His return comes as Cameroon still faces a 10th year of separatist conflict in its English-speaking regions and renewed Islamic State-linked attacks in the far north.