Cameroon’s Paul Biya has not made a statement or been seen since leaving for ‘brief private stay’ at Swiss hotel on 7 June A record 53-day absence by the world’s oldest head of sta…

Cameroon’s Paul Biya has not made a statement or been seen since leaving for ‘brief private stay’ at Swiss hotel on 7 June A record 53-day absence by the world’s oldest head of state has renewed speculation in his native Cameroon about whether he is dead or alive, even though discussing his health is illegal in the country. On 7 June, 93-year-old Paul Biya left for Switzerland for what officials described as a “brief private stay” alongside his wife, Chantal. Almost two months later, neither the president nor the first lady have addressed the country or been seen publicly. Biya, who took office in 1982 after a seven-year stint as prime minister, has taken increasingly long absences from Cameroon in recent years, spending much of his time at the five-star InterContinental hotel in Geneva. No official timetable has been announced for the president’s return from his latest trip abroad, leaving Cameroonians to rely on a succession of conflicting statements from government officials. The minister of communication, René Emmanuel Sadi, said Biya was in good health and “working from Geneva, where he currently resides”. “Reports claiming otherwise are pure fantasy and malicious manipulation aimed at destabilising opinion,” he added. Jacques Fame Ndongo, a senior official from the ruling party and the higher education minister, said Biya had been “meticulously following the files submitted to him by his aides … wherever he is”. The labour minister, Grégoire Owona, gave a different explanation, saying the president was on annual leave and comparing him to regular Cameroonian citizens. “Paul Biya, elected by the Cameroonian people and paid by them, is a worker who has the right to annual leave,” he said. “His employer is obliged to grant it. He informed his employer before leaving and will do the same upon his return.”