“We came out of danger”, Biya says after malaise

Cameroon’s President Paul Biya has returned home in good health after suffering a brief malaise, saying: “We came out of danger”. Biya, who at 73 has been in office for more than two decades, flew in on Friday evening from a summit of central African leaders held in Equatorial Guinea and told reporters that: “I had a serious gastroenteritis to the point where I could not take part in the deliberations.” Biya said other participants at the summit of the Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa (CEMAC) had suffered the same problem. “I cannot say more. What we ate is not important,” he said. “I think we’re truly okay.” The president’s office last week said the president had suffered from stomach ache, the first time the authorities have officially declared him ill since he took office in 1982. Pius Njawe, a journalist and publisher of "Le Messager", one of Cameroon's most authoritative newspapers, faced a two-year prison sentence when he reported in 1998 that Biya had suffered a malaise during the country’s national soccer finals. Biya also said the CEMAC summit - gathering Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo-Brazzaville, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon and Sao Tome and Principe - had agreed to set up a pilot committee to breathe new life into the organisation.