Cameroon has banned any form of discussion on the conventional and social media in the country about the health of 91-year-old President Paul Biya, saying the status of the head of state who has been in power since 1982 is a national security issue.
The move comes after rumours swirled that the nonagenarian president had died in a foreign country, a claim the government debunked as “pure fantasy” orchestrated by “small groups and pernicious individuals for their own hidden ends."
On Thursday, Cameroon’s Minister of Territorial Administration, Paul Atanga Nji said the head of state is the first institution of the republic and any debate about his health is a national security issue.
“All debate in the media about the health of the President of the Republic is consequently formally prohibited,” Atanga Nji said, adding that “offenders would face the rigor of the law.”
The minister has also asked Regional Governors to create monitoring units to record programmes and debates in the private and social media and identify authors of “tendentious comments.”
Social media has been inundated with reports about the poor health and the death of the Cameroonians leader.
President Biya has not appeared in public since September 8 when he was seen on TV leaving Beijing after attending the Summit on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC).
On Tuesday the government said President Biya was in an excellent state of health and would be back in the country “in the next few days”.
The Minister of Communication and government spokesperson, Rene Emmanuel Sadi said reports about the president’s death was pure fantasy.
“The government of the republic unequivocally affirms that these rumours are pure fantasy and imagination on the part of their authors and hereby wishes to formally debunk such rumours,” Sadi said in the statement.
The Cameroon government spokesperson explained that Biya granted himself a brief private stay in Europe after the FOCAC in which he took an active part.
“However, he remains, as usual, and wherever he may be, attentive to the development of national life,” Sadi assured.
Samuel Mvondo Ayolo, director of the president’s cabinet said: “The Head of State continues to exercise his duties in Geneva and has never departed the city following his visit to Beijing.”
Cameroonians are not new to President Biya’s “brief private stay in Europe” as his cabinet usually announces. However, the duration is usually longer than what is announced.
Rumour about the president’s demise have been fueled by a series of international trips, including attending the opening of the 2024 Paris Olympics Games in July where he was seen on TV sitting under the rain. Thereafter he shuttled to Beijing.
President Biya was due in New York last week for the 79th United Nations General Assembly debate, but he did not show up. He did not also take part in the 19th Francophonie Summit in France earlier this month.
During a reception to mark the German National Day in Yaoundé on October 1, the German Ambassador to Cameroon, Corinna Fricke said President Biya was going take part in the Hamburg Sustainability Conference that wrapped up on Tuesday in the European country.
Again, President Biya did not show up and was represented by Prime Minister, Joseph Dion Ngute.
