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President of Cameroon

Born February 13, 1933, in Mvomeka'a, Cameroon; married Jeanne Atyam, 1960 (divorced); married Chantal, 1994; children: three. Education: University of Paris, law and political science, Paris, France, 1960; diplome, Institut d'Etudes Politiques, Paris, 1961; diplome, Institut des Hautes Etudes d'Outre-Mer, 1962; diplome, Etudes Superieures en Droit Public, 1963.

Addresses: Office —Office of the President, care of Central Post Office, Yaounde, Cameroon.

Career

Head, Department of Foreign Development Aid, 1962–63; director, Cabinet in Ministry National.Education, 1964–65; member, Goodwill mission to Ghana and Nigeria, 1965; secretary-general, Ministry Education, Youth and Culture, 1965–67; director, Civil Cabinet of Head of State, 1967–68, secretary-general to president, 1968–75, minister of state, 1968–75, prime minister, 1975–82; president, Republic of Cameroon, 1982—.

Member: Union Nat. Camerouaise; decorated chevalier, Order de la Valeur Ccmerounaise; commander, Nat. Order Fed. Republic Germany, Nat. Order Tunisia; Grand-Croix Nat. Order of Merit Senegal; grand officer, Legion of Honor (France).

Sidelights

From a childhood in a small Cameroonian village where he lived in poverty, Paul Biya has raised himself to the head of his country, taking over first the job of prime minister and then in 1982 the role

Biya was born on February 13, 1933, in Mvomeka'a, Cameroon, a village in the southern part of the country. He grew up rather poor. When he was seven he was sent to a Catholic mission in Ndem to go to school. While he was studying he excelled

President of Cameroon

Division Between North and South

Worked Closely by President’s Side

Assumed Presidency

Strengthened His Power

Ruled Through Repression and Human Rights Violations

Sources

Considered to be a worldly and educated man, Paul Biya served Cameroon in many positions as a career bureaucrat. When he became president of his west African nation in 1982, he acted to create a more efficient government. Over time however, many critics believe Biya’s rule has become repressive and ineffective.

Paul Biya was born in 1933 in the southern Cameroonian village of Mvomeka’a. His parents were not wealthy, but his small village was a surprising springboard for his accomplishments. At seven-years-old, his parents sent him to the Catholic mission at Ndem, approximately 30 miles from his home. One of Biya’s French tutors there found his work excellent, and determined that Biya should become a priest. At age fourteen he was admitted to Edea and Akono Junior Seminaries, run by the Saint Esprit fathers. His future was brightened further when he gained admission to the Lycee General Ledere in Yaounde, Cameroon’s capital; Lycee Ledere is French Cameroon’s most prestigious high school. At the Lycee, Biya studied Latin, Greek, and philosophy.

Biya’s excellent work in secondary school allowed him to study at the University of Paris, where he focused on law and political science. He received his law degree in 1960. After graduation, Biya lived in France and studied public law at the Institute of Overseas Studies. In 1962, when Biya returned to Cameroon, he did so at a historic point in his nation’s history. That turning point for Cameroon would provide opportunities and difficulties for Biya in the coming years.

Division Between North and South

To understand the challenges facing Cameroon, it is important to know its history. The Republic of Cameroon was once a German protectorate. In 1916

Paul Biya (born Paul Barthélemy Biya'a bi Mvondo; 13 February 1933) is a Cameroonian politician who is the second president of Cameroon since 1982.

Biya was born in the village of Mvomeka'a in Cameroon. At that time, the country was called French Cameroon. He studied in France, at the Sorbonne and the Institut d'études politiques de Paris, both in Paris. He graduated in 1961 with a bachelor's degree in public law and a diploma in international relations.

After graduating, Biya returned to Cameroon and worked in the government. In 1975, the PresidentAhmadou Ahidjo gave the job of Prime Minister to Biya. When President Ahidjo resigned on November 6, 1982, Biya became president of the country. Shortly afterwards, Ahidjo and Biya began feuding, and Ahidjo was forced to leave Cameroon.

Biya was elected as the President of Cameroon in 1984, 1988, 1992, 1997 and 2004, but other parties only have been allowed to enter the elections since 1992. The results many of these election results have been called fraudulent (achieved through unfair or illegal ways).

Many international organizations, including Amnesty International, have criticized Biya's government for restricting the freedom of the people of Cameroon. These issues include control of the media (newspapers and radio and television stations) and violations of human rights. Biya's supporters point to the country's stability and high literacy rate.

Biya is currently the longest-ruling non-royal leader in the world and the oldest ruler in Sub-Saharan Africa after Robert Mugabe stepped down during the 2017 Zimbabwean coup d'état.

References

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President of Cameroon since 1982

Paul Biya (born Paul Barthélemy Biya'a bi Mvondo, 13 February 1933) is a Cameroonian politician who has been serving as the second president of Cameroon since 1982. He was previously the fifth prime minister under President Ahmadou Ahidjo from 1975 to 1982. As of 2025, he is the second-longest-ruling president in Africa (after Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo in Equatorial Guinea) and the longest consecutively serving current non-royal national leader in the world and the oldest head of state in the world.

A native of Cameroon's south, Biya rose rapidly as a bureaucrat under President Ahmadou Ahidjo in the 1960s, as Secretary-General of the Presidency from 1968 to 1975 and then as prime minister. He succeeded Ahidjo as president upon the latter's surprise resignation in 1982 and consolidated power in a 1983–1984 staged attempted coup in which he eliminated all of his major rivals.

Biya introduced political reforms within the context of a one-party system in the 1980s, later accepting the introduction of multiparty politics in the early 1990s under serious pressure. He won the contentious 1992 presidential election with 40% of the plurality, single-ballot vote and was re-elected by large margins in 1997, 2004, 2011, and 2018. Opposition politicians and Western governments have alleged voting irregularities and fraud on each of these occasions. Multiple sources have provided evidence that he did not win the elections in 1992 and the political opposition along with others have alleged subsequent elections suffered from rampant fraud.

Early life and education

Ethnically Beti, Paul Biya was born in the village of Mvomeka'a in what is now the South Region of Cameroon. He studied at the Lycée General Leclerc, Yaoundé, and in France at the Lycée Louis-le-Grand, Paris, going on to the Inst