YAOUND\u00c9
\nPaul Biya, who has been president of Cameroon for 43 years, was sworn in on Thursday for an eighth term, after a contested election that sparked mass protests and subsequent repression in which several demonstrators died.
\nThe 92-year-old Biya, the world\u2019s oldest head of state, won the October 12 with 53.7 percent of the vote, according to official results, against 35.2 percent for his main challenger, former government minister Issa Tchiroma Bakary.
\nHe was sworn in at a ceremony in parliament in Yaounde for a new seven-year term at the helm of the central African country. \u201cI will spare no effort to continue to be worthy of this trust,\u201d Biya told the gathering attended by local political figures but no foreign leaders.
\n\u201cI fully understand the gravity of the situation our country is going through. I understand the number and severity of the challenges we face and I understand the depth of frustrations and the scale of expectations,\u201d he continued.
\nTchiroma, a former Biya ally turned opposition figure, stirred unexpected enthusiasm among young voters eager for change and continues to insist he is the true winner of the ballot. \u201cThere are now two presidents \u2014 the president elected by the Cameroonian people (me) and the president appointed by the Constitutional Council (whom you know),\u201d he wrote on social media on Wednesday.
\nHe has repeatedly urged supporters to protest against the official results, which were closer than expected. Several people are reported to have died when security forces quashed opposition rallies just before and after Biya\u2019s win was announced on October 27. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
YAOUND\u00c9 Paul Biya, who has been president of Cameroon for 43 years, was sworn in on Thursday for an eighth term, after a contested election that sparked mass protests and subsequent repression in which several demonstrators died. The 92-year-old Biya, the world\u2019s oldest head of state, won the October 12 with 53.7 percent of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-513257","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n