Biya, at eighty-five years old, is seeking a seventh consecutive term that would extend his thirty-six-year rule as Cameroon's president until 2025.

On November 4, two days before Biya’s inauguration, seventy-eight students, the principal, and two staff members were kidnapped from a Presbyterian school near Bamenda, in the Anglophone part of the country. On November 7, officials reported that the seventy-eight students were freed the day before, as was a staff member. As of November 8, the principal, a teacher, and perhaps more children, were still in captivity.

As Cameroon-watchers await the official results of this month’s elections, the outcome is highly predictable—victories for the ruling Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement (CPDM) and for the long-serving incumbent president, eighty-five-year-old Paul Biya. But the country’s future is utterly uncertain.

Gabon’s transitional government struggles to make the case for readmission into regional and global institutions.   

As President Paul Biya turns ninety this week, an escalating power struggle for his position leaves most Cameroonians with little to celebrate.