Cameroonian authorities have banned discussions in regards to the well being of President Paul Biya after the newest spherical of hypothesis in regards to the nonagenarian’s extended absence from public.
In a 9 October letter to regional governors, inside minister Paul Atanga Nji mentioned discussing the president’s well being was a matter of nationwide safety and “any debate within the media in regards to the president’s situation is subsequently strictly prohibited”.
Nji, who mentioned offenders can be prosecuted, instructed the governors to arrange items to observe broadcasts on non-public media channels. The ban additionally applies to social networks.
The directive follows a clumsy denial by authorities spokesperson René Sadi earlier this week of rumours that 91-year-old Biya had both died in a Paris hospital or in Geneva. The Cameroonian ambassador to France additionally added that the president was in good well being in Geneva.
Biya has been president since 1982, lengthy earlier than most individuals within the central African nation, the place the common age is eighteen, had been born. He was additionally prime minister within the seven years prior, earlier than succeeding Cameroon’s solely different president, Ahmed Ahidjo.
In recent times, the president has led the nation from the five-star Intercontinental resort in Geneva, the place he and his spouse have a ground reserved for his or her retinue of aides and followers.
Rumours of Biya’s loss of life swirl within the media intermittently, fuelled by the frail-looking president’s common absence from Cameroon and the general public eye for lengthy intervals.
Biya has not been seen publicly since attending the China-Africa discussion board in Beijing in early September. He was additionally lacking that month on the UN common meeting regardless of expectations that he can be current to point out solidarity to his former long-serving premier Philémon Yang, the meeting’s present chairperson.
In October, Biya cancelled an look on the Worldwide Organisation of La Francophonie (OIF) summit this October.
In keeping with investigative e-newsletter Africa Confidential, Biya’s abdication of his official duties has turn out to be so ordinary that Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh, secretary common of the presidency, now indicators paperwork on his behalf.
“[Since] Could 2019, pundits have questioned which edicts stem from the president and which from his nominee,” reported the e-newsletter.
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