Cameroon: the sultan king of the Bamouns, Ibrahim Mbombo Njoya, is dead
The Sultan King of the Bamouns, Ibrahim Mbombo Njoya, December 27, 2014 © Wikimedia Commons CC BY-SA 4.0 Photokadaffi
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3 min
Aged 83, Ibrahim Mbombo Njoya died on Monday, September 27 in a Paris hospital where he was evacuated a few days ago.
This pillar of President Biya's regime has enjoyed a long political and administrative career crowned by his enthronement as king of the Bamoun.
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With our correspondent in Yaoundé,
Polycarpe Essomba
He was renowned as one of the most influential figures in the country, one of the last and faithful friends of President Paul Biya.
Ibrahim Mbombo Njoya was born in October 1937 in Foumban, a town located in western Cameroon.
He graduated from the Institute of Administrative Studies in Dakar, and joined the Cameroonian administration in 1958, two years before Cameroon's accession to independence.
He was then the secretary of the High Commissioner of the French Republic in Cameroon.
A long career before succeeding his father
His administrative career has therefore only been an eternal ascent.
He has, for example, headed seven ministerial departments including that of Territorial Administration, Information and Culture, among others.
He also served as Cameroon's Ambassador to Equatorial Guinea and Egypt.
In 1992, his life changed with the death of his father Seidou Njimouluh Njoya.
He succeeds him to the throne of the Bamoun sultanate.
He thus becomes king of this important traditional chiefdom, one of the oldest and most powerful in the country, which has a population of nearly 2 million souls.
The start of a 29-year reign.
Politically, Ibrahim Mbombo Njoya was an influential member of the UNC, the party created
by Ahmadou Ahidjo
, the first president of the Republic of Cameroon.
But even more of the CPDM of Paul Biya, of which he was a member of the central committee and the political bureau.
His death on Monday, September 27 opens the way for the appointment of a new king, in principle among his sons.
He was the only one to say that the president had to think about preparing another person to succeed him.
He said in 2016 that we should not confuse the longevity of a political party in power with the longevity of an individual.
Moussa Njoya (his biographer) talks about the influence he had on Cameroonian politics
Amelia Tulet
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