Cameroon’s President Paul Biya said on 13 July that he will contest the 12 October presidential election, confirming on his official X account that he will seek an eighth seven-year term. The declaration ends months of speculation over whether the 92-year-old leader would stand again after more than four decades in power. Biya is the world’s oldest serving head of state and Africa’s second-longest-ruling leader. He first took office in 1982 and abolished constitutional term limits in 2008. A fresh mandate would keep him in office until he is nearly 100. He won the previous election in 2018 with 71 percent of the vote, a result that opposition parties said was marred by irregularities. The president’s health remains a recurring question after a 42-day absence from public view last year prompted official denials that he was unwell. Critics say his lengthy rule has stifled economic and democratic development in the oil- and cocoa-producing nation, which is grappling with an anglophone separatist insurgency in its west and continuing Boko Haram raids in the far north. Several rivals, including 2018 runner-up Maurice Kamto, Cameroon Party for National Reconciliation leader Cabral Libii and Social Democratic Front candidate Joshua Osih, have declared their intentions to run. Two former cabinet allies have also broken with the governing Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement to launch their own bids, signalling a potentially more fractious race even as Biya moves to extend his 43-year tenure.