Not seen in public for 57 days, Paul Biya has just made his presence felt in a very different way. On August 3, 2026, a series of presidential decrees was read out on CRTV, Cameroon’s state broadcaster, reshaping the top of the military command structure. The move has revived questions about exactly how these texts were signed, given that the head of state is believed to still be in Switzerland.
The decrees appoint five new brigadier generals, along with new officers at the head of the army’s territorial commands and several elite units, including the Presidential Guard. A new chief of staff for the armed forces was also named.
The most talked about change concerns Colonel Raymond Jean Charles Beko’o Abondo, promoted to brigadier general while keeping his command of the Presidential Guard, a post he has held for thirteen years. General Nka Valère takes over the Joint Schools and Training Centers, succeeding General Philippe Mpay, who died in May after more than forty years of service. Other appointments touch the defense ministry’s central departments, training academies, and the air force and navy staffs.
This isn’t routine career management. According to a retired colonel quoted anonymously by RFI, no one but the head of state can make appointments like these within the army. That remark carries particular weight given the current context, since Paul Biya left Yaoundé on June 7 for what was described as a private trip to Europe and has given no public sign of life since.
Camer.be goes further, describing a security apparatus being redrawn against a backdrop of internal tension within the army, compounded by the still vacant vice presidency. That post, reintroduced under the April 2026 constitutional revision to ensure automatic succession in the event of a power vacancy, remains unfilled, leaving open the question of who’s actually in charge should the president become incapacitated.
At 93, Paul Biya is the world’s oldest serving head of state. His wife Chantal is accompanying him on this extended stay, whose length already far exceeds that of autumn 2024. The Cameroonian government, through spokesman René Emmanuel Sadi, insists the president is alive and that his return is imminent, without giving a specific date.
Some outlets have mentioned, without official confirmation, a knee operation in early July, or possible post surgical complications. Those claims remain unverified for now. What is certain is that Cameroon’s administrative machine keeps running from a distance, one signature at a time, while the deeper question, how the state is actually being run during the president’s prolonged absence, remains unanswered.