The World's Oldest President Is Absent

Cameroon's longtime leader just shuffled his top brass from a Swiss hotel room. Ninety-three-year-old President Paul Biya, unseen in public since early June and ensconced in Geneva on what his team calls a "brief private stay," has promoted five colonels to brigadier general and moved key figures in the army, reports the BBC, including reappointing Raymond Jean Charles Beko'o Abondo as head of the presidential guard. The veteran ruler, in power for over four decades, has a history of recalibrating military leadership at politically sensitive moments, including after the 2023 coup in neighboring Gabon and during last year's disputed election bid for an eighth term.

This latest round, signed from abroad, is fueling debate at home, especially online, where critics question the opaque nature and length of his overseas trip, which Reuters now puts at 58 days. Biya has continued to issue decrees, including on foreign loans, but has not formed the new cabinet he promised, nor filled a vice-presidency created in April. Officials insist he is healthy and fully in charge, with a government rep stating that "the president is alive," rejecting opposition claims that his prolonged absence creates a power vacuum. The CRM opposition party's Mamadou Mota argues Cameroon is being "governed by remote control" while pressing economic and social problems pile up. Biya has been in power since 1982.