Cameroon’s state television station on Monday broadcast a special programme dedicated to the “imminent” return of President Paul Biya after weeks of speculation about his health following his absence from public view since September.
“Today the president is on his way and this will put an end to all the speculation,” declared the presenter on CRTV channel while showing images of supporters gathering at the airport in the capital Yaounde.
Aircraft flight tracking sites showed that a Boeing with aircraft registration CMR001, that has been used before to transport Biya, left late Monday morning from Geneva, where the 91-year-old head of state has been residing for several weeks, according to official sources.
Large posters also appeared in the Cameroonian capital welcoming back the head of state who has ruled the country unchallenged for more than four decades.
“Welcome home, Mr President of the Republic,” said one billboard with a portrait of Biya on a blue background, an AFP reporter at the scene said.
On October 8, after consistent rumours about Biya, the government released a statement saying he would be back in the country in the next few days.
Then the government formally banned local media from discussing the state of his health.
Questions about Biya’s state and whereabouts grew when he disappeared from the public view after leaving Beijing at the beginning of September following a China-Africa cooperation summit.
The Cameroonian leader also did not participate in the United Nations General Assembly in New York nor a summit for French-speaking countries in Paris.
Last week Christian Ntimbane, a lawyer and a candidate for the presidential elections in 2025, demanded in an open letter that the government give official explanations about the president’s prolonged absence.
