According to the government, Cameroon's 91-year-old President Biya is in good health

By Amindeh Blaise Atabong

YAOUNDE, Cameroon (Reuters) – Cameroon's 91-year-old President Paul Biya is in good health, the government said in a statement on Tuesday, calling widespread reports claiming otherwise “pure fantasy.”

Biya has not been seen in public since attending a China-Africa forum in Beijing in early September. His failure to appear as scheduled at a summit in France last weekend fueled speculation that the nonagenarian was unwell.

“All kinds of rumors about the president’s condition are circulating in conventional media and social networks,” government spokesman Rene Sadi said in the statement. “The government states unequivocally that these rumors are pure fantasy… and hereby issues a formal denial.”

Opposition parties and civil society groups are demanding an update on Biya's health status and his exact whereabouts.

After Beijing, Biya paid a private visit to Europe, Sadi said. “The head of state is in good health and will return to Cameroon in the coming days.”

Without a clear succession plan, Biya's death would lead to further political unrest in West and Central Africa, where there have been eight coups and several other military attempts to overthrow governments since 2020.

His recent absence from the meeting of leaders of French-speaking countries in Paris attracted much attention at the two-day event, said three non-Cameroonian African ministers who were present.

“He is over 90, he has not been involved in day-to-day operations for a long time, but if he dies the situation will probably get out of control,” said one of the ministers, who wished to remain anonymous.

“Nobody prepared for the consequences. We don’t know what Cameroon would be like without Paul Biya.”

Cocoa- and oil-producing Cameroon, which has had only two presidents since independence from France and Britain in the early 1960s, is in the grip of a secessionist war that has killed thousands and a violent Boko Haram insurgency in the north.

(Additional reporting by Sonia Rolley in Paris; Writing by Alessandra Prentice; Editing by Leslie Adler)