CAMEROON’s veteran leader Paul Biya – who has not been seen in public for nearly two months – has reshuffled the country’s military amid growing concerns over his prolonged stay abroad.
The 93-year-old president appointed officials to key positions within the army and promoted five colonels to the rank of brigadier general.
One of the newly promoted brigadier generals is Raymond Jean Charles Beko’o Abondo, who was immediately reappointed as commander of the elite presidential guard – responsible for protecting Biya – a position he has occupied since 2013.
Such shake-ups are not unusual under Biya’s administration, particularly at times of intense public scrutiny or perceived weakness.
The nonagenarian president who never loses
After an unexpected coup three years ago in neighbouring Gabon, which toppled the Bongo dynasty sending shockwaves across the continent, Cameroon immediately reshuffled its military leadership.
Then, while running for a controversial eighth term in power at last year’s presidential election, Biya reshuffled the top brass of the army.
Again in June this year, he promoted several members of the defence and security forces to higher ranks.
The circumstances under which the latest changes were made have sparked debate, especially among social media users.
Biya made the appointments in separate decrees on Monday from the Swiss city of Geneva, where he has been staying since leaving Cameroon on 7 June for what his team described as a “brief private stay”.
Many in Cameroon have criticised the lack of information about his activities and the uncertainty surrounding the duration of his foreign trip.
After last year’s election, he promised to name a new cabinet, but has yet to do so. A new post of vice-president that was created this April remains unfilled.
During his nearly 60-day period abroad so far, he has signed several other decrees, including some authorising his government to sign loan agreements with international financial institutions.
His absence sparked further speculation about his health, but the government has continually debunked reports that the head of state has been in hospital.
Press freedom groups were outraged when it was announced two years ago that the media in Cameroon were banned from reporting on Biya’s health.
Cameroon’s Communication Minister René Emmanuel Sadi has said the president is alive and will be returning to the country soon, during an interview with French-language broadcaster RFI.
He also dismissed allegations by the opposition that the nonagenarian leader’s absence amounted to a vacancy at the helm of the state, saying Biya continues to work from Geneva.
But President Biya’s continuing absence means Cameroon has a “glaring institutional vacuum”, says the opposition CRM party’s vice-president, Mamadou Mota.
“Executive power is exercised at the heart of the nation, not through smoke signals or telepathy from hotel suites on the other side of the world,” he said last month.