Cameroon’s 92-year-old President Paul Biya, the world’s oldest head of state, has overhauled the army’s high ranks in what analysts say is an effort to make sure the armed forces again his bid for an eighth time period after a public outcry.
The personnel strikes, introduced late on Tuesday in a sequence of presidential decrees, have an effect on almost all branches of the armed forces. They embody the appointment of latest chiefs of employees for the infantry, air pressure and navy in addition to the promotion of eight brigadier generals to the rank of main basic.
One of many promoted generals is the coordinator of the elite Fast Intervention Battalion (BIR), a particular forces unit typically deployed in counter-terrorism operations and seen as central to Biya’s safety equipment. The decrees additionally named a brand new particular presidential army adviser.
The decrees have been printed two days after Biya, in energy since 1982, introduced he would run for his eighth time period in workplace in Cameroon’s presidential election scheduled for October 12. The seven-year time period may hold him in workplace till he’s almost 100.
The announcement prompted an unprecedented public outcry within the press and on social media in Cameroon, the place Biya’s age and lengthy absences have raised questions on his health to rule.
The federal government has stated Biya is in good well being and dismissed any strategies in any other case.
The decrees regarding the armed forces mirror “a method by President Biya and his collaborators to consolidate energy by constructing a fortress of loyal military generals round him” that may suppress any protest to his continued rule, stated Anthony Antem, peace and safety analyst on the Nkafu Coverage Institute in Yaounde.
Celestin Delanga, researcher on the Institute for Safety Research (ISS), stated the decrees “are available a novel political and safety context.”
Biya needs to make sure stability throughout and after the election and “further trusted personnel are wanted” for that, he stated.
The cocoa- and oil-producing Central African nation additionally faces a bunch of significant safety challenges, notably a battle with Anglophone separatists and threats from Nigeria-based Islamist fighters within the north.
The federal government gave no rationalization for the overhaul.
The final important army shake-up in Cameroon got here simply final yr, shortly after Biya returned in October from his newest prolonged keep overseas which revived hypothesis about his well being.
