YAOUNDE - Cameroon's President Paul Biya has returned to the country after a more than two-month absence that has fuelled fierce debate about his ability to rule after 44 years in power.
Biya, who, at the age of 93, is the world's oldest serving head of state, left the capital, Yaounde, on June 7 for a "short private stay in Europe", the president's office said.
He was in the Swiss city of Geneva with his family and a few close associates, according to the Cameroonian press.
A few weeks after he left, the government firmly denied media reports that Biya's health had deteriorated and insisted that he was at work.
Although frequently absent, the unprecedented length of the latest stay sparked sharp condemnation by the opposition of an "institutional vacuum" and a country on "autopilot", while the appointment of a new government and vice-president has been pending for months.
Only Cameroon's second president since independence from France in 1960, Biya personally hired and fired key officials and ruthlessly repressed political and armed opposition.
Long respected and active on the diplomatic scene, his leadership has drawn criticism from the United Nations and Western capitals in recent years.
After his highly contested 2018 and 2025 re-elections, Biya limited public appearances to rare pre-recorded televised broadcasts, occasional official foreign trips, or images of family celebrations with his flamboyant second wife Chantal.
Frequent visits abroad for medical treatment and holidays at a luxury Geneva hotel sparked accusations that he spent vast amounts of public money on himself and his entourage.
In 2018, an international consortium of investigative journalists (OCCRP) estimated he had spent an accumulated 4.5 years on private trips abroad at a cost of $65 million.
- 'Divide and rule' -
Biya survived a coup attempt in 1984, which deeply troubled him, a security official in Yaounde said.
Unscripted public appearances thereafter became a rarity and crowds were kept at a distance when Biya's motorcade passed through the capital's streets.
"All you have to do is lose your head for a second, and you're done with," Biya tellingly once said to a public TV journalist.
His detractors accused him of ruling from his native southern village of Mvomekaa while the country battled social upheaval, economic disparity and separatist violence.
Nearly 40 percent of the population lives in extreme poverty and corruption is rife, according to the United Nations.
Even from afar, Biya closely controlled his ministers and entourage, while talk of his succession remained taboo.
Biya "put the saying 'divide and rule' into practice", political scientist Stephane Akoa said.
Biya is the world's longest-serving leader after Equatorial Guinea's Teodoro Obiang Nguema, who seized power in 1979.
He initially trained to become a Catholic priest before studying political science in Paris.
He rose through the ranks under his predecessor, Ahmadou Ahidjo, to become prime minister from 1975 to 1982 before taking over as president when Ahidjo suddenly resigned.
He was elected with 100 percent of the vote in 1984, when he was the only candidate and re-elected in 1988.
Since the introduction of a multi-party system in 1990, he has won another six consecutive terms outright.
Even his inner circle is intimidated by his strategy of entrusting command of the army to his closest associates and giving Israeli operatives the job of training elite troops and his personal security detail.
In 2011, Higher Education Minister Jacques Fame Ndongo said: "We are all the creatures or the creations of President Paul Biya... We are just his servants, or even better, his slaves."
- Opposition 'crushed' -
While weakening political parties, Biya has silenced all opposition since 2018, when he arrested and convicted hundreds of peaceful demonstrators, including presidential rival Maurice Kamto.
Issa Tchiroma Bakary, a former minister who later joined the opposition and proclaimed himself winner of the October 2025 vote, called on supporters to defend what he described as his "victory", triggering protests that were bloodily suppressed in several major cities.
"If you try to go against Biya, you'll be crushed," said Titus Edzoa, a former chief Biya aide, who resigned to challenge his boss for the presidency in 1997.
He was arrested, accused of corruption and spent 17 years behind bars.
But insecurity has shaken the country under Biya's rule.
Cameroon's Far North region has faced jihadist attacks since 2009, while security forces have battled armed separatists in the English-speaking west since late 2016.
The conflict broke out after Biya violently repressed peaceful demonstrations by the Anglophone minority.
Article by AFP