Cameroon’s divided opposition seeks to stop the world’s oldest leader after 43 years in power

With weeks to go until an election that could extend the world’s oldest president’s 43 years in power, Cameroon ‘s opposition is struggling. Its most popular figure has been barred from running, and the 11 candidates remaining are likely to divide the vote.

At 92, Paul Biya has spent nearly half his years on earth as president and is Africa’s second-longest serving leader, behind only Equatorial Guinea’s Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo. If he wins an eighth seven-year term in the Oct. 12 vote, he could govern until he’s nearly 100.

During his decades in power, the Central African nation of nearly 30 million people has struggled with challenges from a deadly secessionist movement to chronic corruption that has stifled development despite rich natural resources like oil and minerals. At least 43% of the country’s citizens live in poverty as measured by core living standards such as income, education and health,