{"id":41502,"date":"2026-08-04T14:43:12","date_gmt":"2026-08-04T12:43:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&p=41502"},"modified":"2026-08-04T14:46:16","modified_gmt":"2026-08-04T12:46:16","slug":"cameroons-biya-unseen-for-58-days-reshuffles-military-leadership","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/cameroons-biya-unseen-for-58-days-reshuffles-military-leadership\/","title":{"rendered":"Cameroon’s Biya, unseen for 58 days, reshuffles military leadership"},"content":{"rendered":"
Cameroon’s President Paul Biya has reshuffled senior military staff, promoting the head of the Presidential Guard \u200bto a brigadier general from colonel and replacing commanders \u200cin four of the country’s five joint military regions, according to three separate presidential decrees.<\/div>\n
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Biya, the world’s oldest head of state, \u200bhas been out of the public eye for two \u200bmonths. He left Cameroon on June 7 for \u2060what the civil cabinet described as “a brief private stay \u200bin Europe” and has not returned.<\/div>\n
The decrees were signed on \u200bMonday and announced on national radio.<\/div>\n
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Cameroon’s government Spokesperson, Rene Emmanuel Sadi, did not respond to requests for comment. He told French broadcaster \u200bRFI\u00a0<\/i>on Sunday that “the President is alive” and will \u200bsoon return.<\/div>\n
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The appointments included a new commander of the Rapid Intervention Brigade, \u200cthe \u2060promotion of Major General Ebaka Hippolyte to Major General of the Armed Forces General Staff as well as several colonels to the rank of brigadier general, and changes to \u200bmotorised infantry \u200bbrigades.<\/div>\n
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Cameroon’s ruling party \u2060called a rare meeting of senior leaders last month as criticism mounted over the continued \u200babsence of Biya.<\/div>\n
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Biya, 93, who has ruled \u200bthe oil- \u2060and cocoa-producing country since 1982, often spends extended stretches abroad, though his advanced age has lately fuelled speculation about his \u2060health, \u200bwhereabouts and ability to govern. The \u200bcurrent overseas trip is one of his longest yet.<\/div>\n
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–Reuters–<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":13886,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[],"class_list":["post-41502","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"Cameroon's ruling party \u2060called a rare meeting of senior leaders last month as criticism mounted over the continued \u200babsence of Biya.","published_date":"","news_description":"Cameroon's ruling party \u2060called a rare meeting of senior leaders last month as criticism mounted over the continued \u200babsence of Biya.","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/41502","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/41502\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41505,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/41502\/revisions\/41505"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13886"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41502"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=41502"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}