Cameroon has now gone two months without seeing President Paul Biya in person, and questions about who is running the country are getting louder.
The 93-year-old president, the world’s oldest head of state, left Yaoundé on June 7 for what his civil cabinet called “a brief private stay in Europe”.
He has not returned since, and his last public appearance was on May 20 during National Day celebrations. Officials say he is in Geneva, Switzerland.
Cameroon has no vice president in office right now. Although a constitutional amendment restoring the position was passed in April 2026, the seat remains vacant.
That gap has led opposition parties to describe the government as operating “on autopilot”. MRC vice-president Mamadou Mota called it a “glaring institutional vacuum”, while the Social Democratic Front made the same “autopilot” claim.
Despite his physical absence, Biya has still signed official business. Three presidential decrees announced on national radio reshuffled senior military leadership, including promoting the head of the Presidential Guard to brigadier general and replacing commanders in four of five joint military regions. The government insists he is “meticulously following files” from abroad, and Communication Minister Rene Emmanuel Sadi told RFI that “the president is alive” and will return soon.
The prolonged absence has also rattled markets. Investors are uneasy about the uncertainty, contributing to a drop in Cameroon’s dollar bond performance. The ruling CPDM party even held a rare meeting of senior leaders last month as criticism mounted.
Biya has ruled Cameroon since 1982 and was re-elected to an eighth term in October 2025. His current trip is already one of his longest stretches outside the country.
