July 16, 2025
• President says he’ll run again in October election
• Biya wants ‘fortress’ of generals around him, says analyst
• Cameroon faces serious security challenges
Cameroon’s President Paul Biya, the world’s oldest head of state at 92, has overhauled the top leadership of the military in what analysts see as a bid to secure the armed forces’ support for his eighth-term ambition amid public outcry.
The changes, announced late Tuesday through a series of presidential decrees, affected almost every branch of the armed forces.
They included the appointment of new chiefs of staff for the infantry, air force, and navy, along with the promotion of eight brigadier generals to major general.
One of the promoted generals is the coordinator of the elite Rapid Intervention Battalion (BIR), a special forces unit often deployed in counter-terrorism operations and seen as central to Biya’s security apparatus.
The decrees also named a new special presidential military adviser.
The decrees were published two days after Biya, in power since 1982, announced he would run for his eighth term in office in Cameroon’s presidential election scheduled for October 12.
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The seven-year term could keep him in office until he is nearly 100.
The announcement prompted an unprecedented public outcry in the press and on social media in Cameroon, where Biya’s age and long absences have raised questions about his fitness to rule.
The government has said Biya is in good health and dismissed any suggestions otherwise.
The decrees concerning the armed forces reflect “a strategy by President Biya and his collaborators to consolidate power by building a fortress of loyal army generals around him” that can suppress any protest to his continued rule, said Anthony Antem, peace and security analyst at the Nkafu Policy Institute in Yaounde.
Celestin Delanga, researcher at the Institute for Security Studies (ISS), said the decrees “come in a unique political and security context.”
Biya wants to ensure stability during and after the election and “additional trusted personnel are needed” for that, he said.
The cocoa- and oil-producing Central African nation also faces a host of serious security challenges, notably a conflict with Anglophone separatists and threats from Nigeria-based Islamist fighters in the north.
The government gave no explanation for the overhaul.
The last significant military shake-up in Cameroon came just last year, shortly after Biya returned in October from his latest extended stay abroad which revived speculation about his health.
Credit: Reuters
