Cameroon’s Biya, 92, brushes off health fears in bid for new term

By Amindeh Blaise Atabong and Robbie Corey-Boulet

In June 2004, on returning from yet another extended stay abroad, Cameroon President Paul Biya came down from his plane and poked fun at rumours he was dead.

“People are interested in my funeral,” he told reporters. “I’ll see them in 20 years.”

That was 21 years ago, and the world’s oldest serving head of state still has no plans to go anywhere.

On Sunday he announced on X he would run in Cameroon’s presidential election scheduled for October 12, seeking an eighth term that could keep him in office until he is nearly 100.

Biya has held a tight grip on power since taking over as president in 1982 from his one-time mentor Ahmadou Ahidjo, whom he later sidelined and forced into exile.

Now, an unprecedented public outcry in the press and on social media since his announcement suggests cracks in that power base, and doubts in his