Paul Biya

Paul Biya has led Cameroon since 1982, when he succeeded President Ahmadou Ahidjo in a peaceful handover, later consolidating power after surviving a 1984 coup attempt. Now 93, he is the world's oldest sitting head of state and, after Equatorial Guinea's Teodoro Obiang, Africa's second-longest-ruling president. He secured an eighth term in the disputed October 2025 election, which the opposition and independent observers alleged was marred by fraud, according to reporting from the African Union, which nonetheless congratulated him on the result while voicing concern over post-election violence.

In April 2026, Cameroon's parliament controversially reinstated a vice-presidential post — abolished since 1972 — widely read as a mechanism to manage succession given persistent, officially unconfirmed rumors about Biya's health. Discussing his condition publicly remains effectively taboo, with a government minister having explicitly warned media outlets against speculating on it.