Cameroon’s long-time president, Paul Biya, has announced he will run for another term, aiming to extend his 36 year rule.
Biya, 85, said on Twitter Friday that he will stand as a candidate in the October elections. He said he is running to “ensure a more united, stable and prosperous Cameroon.”
“I am willing to respond positively to your overwhelming calls,” he tweeted.
Of Africa’s living rulers, only Equatorial Guinea’s President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo has ruled uninterrupted for longer.
Biya has been Cameroon’s president since 1982 and if he wins a seventh term, could serve well into his 90s.
In 2008, he removed term limits from the constitution, allowing him to contest and win the 2011 election. Dozens of people were killed in riots protesting the move.
Cameroon is dealing with Boko Haram attacks in the far north and a separatist movement in its two western English-speaking regions.
An army spokesman said Friday that a convoy carrying Cameroon’s defense minister, Joseph Beti Assomo, was attacked by separatists on Thursday in the southwest. He said the minister was not harmed, but said several delegation members were injured.
David Anderson says
Pres Paul, presumably running for “election” from the Intercontinental Hotel in Switzerland as usual, is MOST of what’s wrong with Cameroon. Good piece.
FREE CAMEROON!