Security forces have fired tear gas to break up demonstrations in Yaounde and Garoua amid tensions over early vote counts
Security forces in Cameroon dispersed protesters who had gathered following partial elections results reported by local media on Tuesday, which indicated that 92-year-old President Paul Biya is set to retain his position.
The chaos erupted even though the official results have yet to be published by the country’s constitutional council.
According to Reuters, authorities faced mounting unrest as Biya moves toward a likely eighth term in office. Security forces used tear gas to break up demonstrations by opposition supporters in both the capital, Yaounde, and the northern city of Garoua.
On Tuesday, Paul Atanga Nji, Cameroon’s interior minister, announced that authorities had detained more than 20 individuals in Garoua during street protests. Protests also erupted in several cities across the country on Thursday over reports of election fraud.
The presidential election in Cameroon was held on October 12. Two days later, 76-year-old opposition candidate Issa Tchiroma Bakary declared himself the winner and called on President Biya to concede. “Our victory is clear, it must be respected,” Tchiroma said in a video statement on Facebook.
The ruling party, the Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement (CPDM), rejected the claim, accusing Tchiroma of seeking to undermine the electoral process.
Biya is seeking an eighth term after 43 years in power, making him one of the world’s oldest leaders and Africa’s second longest-serving head of state after Equatorial Guinea’s Teodoro Obiang Nguema. He is the second president to lead Cameroon since independence from France in 1960.
Tchiroma is a political veteran and leader of the Front for the National Salvation of Cameroon (FSNC). A former transport and communication minister, he has alternated between supporting and opposing President Biya over the decades. In June 2025, Tchiroma resigned from government to run against the president.
On Tuesday, news agency Journal du Cameroon reported, citing the vote-counting commission, that Biya leads with 53.66% of the vote compared to Tchiroma’s 35.1 %. Cabral Libii was in third place with 3.41%, while Bello Bouba Maigari was in fourth with 2.45%.
