YAOUNDÉ, Cameroon — Golden Info reports that Cameroon’s President Paul Biya departed the country on June 7, 2026, for Europe, resulting in a 48-day absence from the national capital as of July 25, 2026.
Cameroon’s Minister of Communication, Rene Emmanuel Sadi, issued an official statement on June 18, 2026, denying press reports that Biya, who is 93 years old, was hospitalized in a Geneva clinic following his arrival in Switzerland with his wife Chantal Biya.
Opposition political organizations issued public statements regarding executive governance during the president’s travel abroad. The Vice-President of the Cameroon Renaissance Movement, Mamadou Mota, stated on July 24, 2026, that the absence indicated a “glaring institutional vacuum.” On the same day, the Social Democratic Front stated that national administration was operating “on autopilot,” following an earlier call in July 2026 by Patricia Tomaino Ndam Njoya, President of the Cameroon Democratic Union, for an official process to determine executive capacity.
Cameroon’s Minister of Higher Education, Jacques Fame Ndongo, rejected allegations of an institutional vacancy on July 21, 2026. Ndongo said, “Wherever he is, the head of state is meticulously following the files submitted to him… by his aides.”
State administrative updates remain pending following Biya’s December 31 national address, in which he pledged to form a new cabinet in the days following the October presidential election. Structural modifications to governance included presidential appointment revisions by the Cameroon Parliament in March 2026 and the establishment of a vice-presidential position through constitutional reform in May 2026, though no vice-president has been named. Cameroon Senate President Aboubakary Abdoulaye remains designated under constitutional law to assume executive authority in the event of an official power vacuum.
In June 2026, a falsified document structured as a presidential decree announcing a vice-presidential appointment was delivered to a public radio station in YAOUNDÉ, where journalists confirmed the material was counterfeit and withheld it from broadcast.