YAOUNDE, Cameroon — YAOUNDE, Cameroon (AP) — Cameroon’s 92-year-old president introduced Monday he’ll search his 8th time period within the upcoming October elections. The announcement comes after months of hypothesis that the getting older chief would no longer run, atmosphere the degree for an electoral showdown.
Paul Biya, Africa’s 2d longest serving president after Teodoro Obiang of Equatorial Guinea, is regularly ill and out of the country. Closing yr, communicate unfold that he had died, prompting the federal government to publicly deny the rumors. Cameroon’s 2d president since independence from France in 1960, Biya has been in energy since 1982.
Promising that the most productive is but to return in his submit on social media, Biya reiterated his choice to rule, pronouncing, “Relaxation confident that my choice to serve you is commensurate with the intense demanding situations going through us.”
The greater than 40 years of Biya’s rule have left an enduring affect. His executive has confronted quite a lot of demanding situations, together with allegations of corruption and a secessionist motion in Cameroon’s English-speaking provinces that has pressured 1000’s out of college and brought on fatal clashes with safety forces.
“President Biya’s announcement to run once more is a transparent signal of Cameroon’s stalled political transition. After over 40 years in energy, what the rustic wishes is renewal — no longer repetition. Cameroonians deserve democratic trade and responsible management,” Nkongho Felix Agbor, a human rights suggest and legal professional informed The Related Press.
Cameroon has additionally needed to maintain spillover violence by means of the Islamic extremist Boko Haram team, based totally in neighboring Nigeria.
Just lately, a number of of Biya’s longtime allies defected to announce their very own candidacies for president.
He cruised to victory in 2018 with over 70% of the vote in an election marred by means of irregularities and coffee turnout because of ongoing separatist and jihadi violence.
In a area threatened with shrinking democratic area, a number of different African nations even have presidents accused of the use of state mechanisms to extend their keep in energy. Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni just lately sought nomination for a 7th time period, a transfer that may convey him nearer to 5 a long time in energy in the East African nation.
