Do we like them?

Do we like Paul Biya?

Our score: 3 out of 10. A contested election, a deadly protest crackdown and an unchanged anti-gay law outweigh the little verified good we could find.

Paul Biya is the long-time leader of Cameroon and is now the world's oldest head of state. He was sworn in for an eighth term in November 2025, at 92. Most Cameroonians have never known another president.

The 2025 election is the story that matters. The Constitutional Council declared him the winner with 53.66 per cent against 35.19 per cent for Tchiroma, his former ally. Tchiroma disputed the result, and the opposition called the swearing-in a “constitutional coup”. The government put the protest death toll at 16, while rights groups claimed at least 30.

On the harm test, we found no speeches of his own attacking LGBTQ+ people. The anti-gay law that carries up to five years in prison dates to 1972, before he took power, and reports say it has stayed on the books throughout his rule. That is a failure to act rather than words of his, and we found nothing he has said on it. The post-election crackdown, with tear gas and live ammunition reported by rights groups, is a bigger mark.

The good column is thin. Praise for peace and stability mostly comes from state-linked outlets, so we don't lean on it. Verified acts of kindness or standing up for others at a cost to himself didn't turn up in what we could read. We couldn't open full articles for this card, so treat it as a first pass.