Overview
- The 93-year-old president landed at Nsimalen International Airport on Thursday and drove to the Etoudi Unity Palace after more than 10 weeks in Geneva.
- Biya left Cameroon on June 7 for what his civil cabinet called a brief private stay in Europe, a visit that extended to about 73 days and fuelled wide public and political concern.
- Government officials repeatedly denied reports that Biya had been hospitalised during the trip, with Communication Minister Rene Emmanuel Sadi publicly rejecting those accounts in June.
- The vice-presidential post reintroduced in April remains vacant, so under the constitution the president of the Senate would take interim powers if the presidency were declared vacant, and the Constitutional Council declined to act on opposition requests during Biya’s absence.
- After decades of highly centralised rule and a disputed 2025 re-election, Biya’s prolonged absence has increased elite jockeying and public unease, which could sharpen succession struggles and affect stability if questions about his fitness to govern are not resolved.