When Cameroon's president, Paul Biya, landed in Yaounde after weeks abroad, a crowd greeted him. Biya was filmed shaking hands with officials, and supporters lined the street holding placards with such messages as "La force de l'experience" (The strength of experience). But it was the reaction of the presenter for state-run broadcaster that was perhaps most telling.

"Finally, this is not a phantom, it is President Paul Biya having a lengthy discussion with government officials," the presenter for Cameroon Radio Television (CRTV) said.

The week before, rumors swirled over the 91-year-old's health. Cameroon's government even banned local media from discussing Biya's health after he did not participate in the United Nations General Assembly in New York or a summit for French-speaking countries in Paris. Before landing in Yaounde, Biya was last seen in public at the Forum of China-Africa Cooperation in Beijing.

While Biya is credited with bringing multiparty democracy to Cameroon and strengthening relations with Western nations, especially France, the past decade has seen the outbreak of a violent separatist struggle in the nation's Anglophone regions, and unrest in the north, where the terror group Boko Haram is active.

Biya has clamped down on political opposition, jailing hundreds of peaceful protesters, including Maurice Kamto, the runner-up in the most recent presidential election — in 2018 — who spent nine months in jail without charges in 2019 and was freed only after heavy international........

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