Cameroon's president seeks an eighth term at the age of 92
YAOUNDE, Cameroon — Cameroon's 92-year-old president announced Sunday he will seek his eighth term in the October elections. The announcement comes after speculation the aging leader would not run, setting the stage for an electoral showdown.
Paul Biya, Africa's second-longest-serving president after Teodoro Obiang of Equatorial Guinea, is frequently sick and abroad. Last year, talk spread that he had died, prompting the government to publicly deny the rumors. Cameroon's second president since independence from France in 1960, Biya has been in power since 1982.
Promising that the best is yet to come in his post on social media, Biya reiterated his determination to rule, saying, 'Rest assured that my determination to serve you is commensurate with the serious challenges facing us.'
The more than 40 years of Biya's rule have left a lasting impact. His government has faced various challenges, including allegations of corruption and a secessionist movement in Cameroon's English-speaking provinces that has forced thousands out of school and triggered deadly clashes with security forces.
'President Biya's announcement to run again is a clear sign of Cameroon's stalled political transition. After over 40 years in power, what the country needs is renewal — not repetition. Cameroonians deserve democratic change and accountable leadership,' Nkongho Felix Agbor, a human rights advocate and lawyer told The Associated Press.
Cameroon has also had to deal with spillover violence by the Islamic extremist Boko Haram group, based in neighbouring Nigeria.
Recently, several of Biya's longtime allies defected to announce their own candidacies for president.
He cruised to victory in 2018 with over 70 per cent of the vote in an election marred by irregularities and low turnout due to ongoing separatist and jihadi violence.
In a region threatened with shrinking democratic space, several other African countries also have presidents accused of using state mechanisms to prolong their stay in power. Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni recently sought nomination for a seventh term, a move that would bring him closer to five decades in power in the East African country.
Nalova Akua And Wilson Mcmakin, The Associated Press
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Winnipeg Free Press
25 minutes ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Judge blocks Trump's birthright citizenship restrictions in third ruling since high court decision
BOSTON (AP) — A federal judge on Friday blocked the Trump administration from ending birthright citizenship for the children of parents who are in the U.S. illegally, issuing the third court ruling blocking the birthright order nationwide since a key Supreme Court decision in June. U.S. District Judge Leo Sorokin, joining another district court as well as an appellate panel of judges, found that a nationwide injunction granted to more than a dozen states remains in force under an exception to the Supreme Court ruling. That decision restricted the power of lower-court judges to issue nationwide injunctions. The states have argued Trump's birthright citizenship order is blatantly unconstitutional and threatens millions of dollars for health insurance services that are contingent on citizenship status. The issue is expected to move quickly back to the nation's highest court. Lawyers for the government had argued Sorokin should narrow the reach of his earlier ruling granting a preliminary injunction, arguing it should be 'tailored to the States' purported financial injuries.' 'The record does not support a finding that any narrower option would feasibly and adequately protect the plaintiffs from the injuries they have shown they are likely to suffer,' Sorokin wrote. Sorokin acknowledged his order would not be the last word on birthright citizenship. Trump and his administration 'are entitled to pursue their interpretation of the Fourteenth Amendment, and no doubt the Supreme Court will ultimately settle the question,' Sorokin wrote. 'But in the meantime, for purposes of this lawsuit at this juncture, the Executive Order is unconstitutional.' The administration has not yet appealed any of the recent court rulings. Trump's efforts to deny citizenship to children born to parents who are in the country illegally or temporarily will remain blocked unless and until the Supreme Court says otherwise. An email asking for the White House's response to the ruling was sent Friday. A federal judge in New Hampshire issued a ruling earlier this month prohibiting Trump's executive order from taking effect nationwide in a new class-action lawsuit. U.S. District Judge Joseph LaPlante in New Hampshire had paused his own decision to allow for the Trump administration to appeal, but with no appeal filed in the last week, his order went into effect. On Wednesday, a San Francisco-based appeals court found the president's executive order unconstitutional and affirmed a lower court's nationwide block. A Maryland-based judge said this week that she would do the same if an appeals court signed off. The justices ruled last month that lower courts generally can't issue nationwide injunctions, but it didn't rule out other court orders that could have nationwide effects, including in class-action lawsuits and those brought by states. The Supreme Court did not decide whether the underlying citizenship order is constitutional. Plaintiffs in the Boston case earlier argued that the principle of birthright citizenship is 'enshrined in the Constitution,' and that Trump does not have the authority to issue the order, which they called a 'flagrantly unlawful attempt to strip hundreds of thousands of American-born children of their citizenship based on their parentage.' They also argue that Trump's order halting automatic citizenship for babies born to people in the U.S. illegally or temporarily would cost states funding they rely on to 'provide essential services' — from foster care to health care for low-income children, to 'early interventions for infants, toddlers, and students with disabilities.' At the heart of the lawsuits is the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, which was ratified in 1868 after the Civil War and the Dred Scott Supreme Court decision. That decision found that Scott, an enslaved man, wasn't a citizen despite having lived in a state where slavery was outlawed. The Trump administration has asserted that children of noncitizens are not 'subject to the jurisdiction' of the United States and therefore not entitled to citizenship. ____ Associated Press reporter Mark Sherman in Washington contributed.
Toronto Star
an hour ago
- Toronto Star
House ethics panel tells Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to pay more for Met Gala attendance
WASHINGTON (AP) — The House Ethics Committee on Friday told Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to make additional payments for her attendance at the 2021 Met Fashion Gala, where she drew attention for wearing a dress adorned with the message 'tax the rich.' The ethics panel, which found the New York Democrat had underpaid for some of the services and clothing for the event, also issued reports Friday on unrelated ethics allegations against Reps. Mike Kelly of Pennsylvania, Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick or Florida and Henry Cuellar of Texas.
Toronto Star
an hour ago
- Toronto Star
Longtime lawmaker shapes the debate as Arizona grapples with dwindling water supplies
PHOENIX (AP) — Throughout two decades marked by drought, climate change and growing demand for water, Arizona's leaders have fiercely debated an increasingly urgent problem: how to manage dwindling water supplies in an arid state. At the crossroads sits Rep. Gail Griffin, a savvy and quietly assertive lawmaker who has for years used her status as the leader of key water and land use committees in the Republican-controlled Legislature to protect property owners' rights, deciding which bills live and die.
