The party of President Paul Biya, who has ruled Cameroon for more than 40 years, unsurprisingly won all 70 seats in the indirectly elected Senate on March 12, the Constitutional Council announced Thursday.

The 90-year-old omnipotent head of state must also appoint 30 more senators in the next 10 days.

The Rassemblement démocratique du peuple camerounais (RDPC) has even strengthened its total domination of the upper house of parliament since the opposition had seven seats in the outgoing Senate.

The CPDM lists, which came out on top in each of Cameroon’s ten administrative regions, won all the seats in each of these regions, according to the results read out by Clement Atangana, the president of the Constitutional Council, during a ceremony broadcast live on CRTV, the public television.

In the ten regions of this central African country of some 28 million inhabitants, 10 parties had presented candidates to 11,134 electors: regional councillors, municipal councillors and traditional chiefs.

The CPDM was the only party to present lists in all ten regions. It controls 316 of Cameroon’s 360 communes.

In the National Assembly, Mr. Biya’s party and its allies also have an overwhelming majority of 164 deputies out of 180, elected in February 2020.

The only issue at stake in the senatorial elections is the election, once the 30 additional senators are appointed by the head of state, of the president of the Senate, who is constitutionally responsible for the interim in case of vacancy at the head of power. But he must organise a presidential election within 120 days, in which he is not allowed to run.

The incumbent, Marcel Niat Njifenji, 88, who is very close to Mr Biya, has held the post for 10 years.

The “succession” of Paul Biya is on everyone’s lips. In case of death or incapacity of the president, the CPDM will have to designate a successor who will have every chance of winning the presidential election. But no personality, even among those closest to Mr. Biya, dares to step forward publicly.

Paul Biya has ruled Cameroon since 1982 with an iron fist, regularly accused by the UN and international NGOs of ruthlessly repressing the opposition in the streets and a bloody separatist rebellion in the two western regions populated mainly by the English-speaking Cameroonian minority.

The World Health Organization (WHO) said Thursday that the death toll from the Marburg virus epidemic in Equatorial Guinea has risen to 20, with Malabo reporting six more deaths in 10 days.

The cases of this haemorrhagic fever, which is almost as deadly as Ebola, have spread from the province of Kie-Ntem, where it caused the first known deaths on 7 January, to Bata, the economic capital of this small central African country, which is partly an island and partly a continent.

This expansion “suggests wider transmission of the virus” and requires “intensified response efforts to avoid a large-scale epidemic and loss of life,” WHO warned in a statement.

“Between 11 and 20 March, eight cases were confirmed, six of which died,” the Equatoguinean government said on its website, without establishing a total toll since the beginning of the epidemic. The last official death toll was 11 on 28 February.

“To date, there are 20 probable cases and 20 deaths,” the WHO said, adding that the new cases are reported in the provinces of Kié-Ntem, Litoral and Centro Sur, which all have international borders with Cameroon and Gabon.

The epidemic is now raging in three of the four mainland provinces, from the east to the Atlantic Ocean. Bata, the port on the Gulf of Guinea with a population of about 250,000, is “affected”, according to the government.

The efforts of the authorities, aided by the WHO, to contain the virus in Kié-Ntem have therefore not been enough. “Additional WHO experts (…) will be deployed in the coming days,” the UN agency said, adding that it is also “helping Gabon and Cameroon to strengthen their preparedness and response to the epidemic.

Tanzania also announced on Tuesday the start of a Marburg epidemic, with five deaths.

The virus is transmitted to humans by fruit bats and is spread in humans through direct contact with bodily fluids of infected people, or surfaces and materials. The case fatality rate is up to 88%.

There is no approved vaccine or antiviral treatment for the virus. However, supportive care – oral or intravenous rehydration – and treatment of specific symptoms increase the chances of survival.

A range of potential treatments, including blood products, immune therapies and drugs, as well as candidate vaccines with phase 1 data are being evaluated, according to WHO.

The Nigerien army said last week it killed “about 20 terrorists” of the jihadist group Boko Haram and captured 83 other suspected fighters during an operation on the border with Nigeria.

This “air-land sweep” operation aimed to “neutralize” the bases of the Islamic State in West Africa group (ISWAP, a splinter faction of Boko Haram) installed in the Matari forest in Nigeria from where attacks against towns and military positions in Niger are planned, according to the military operations bulletin in the Diffa region (south-east of Niger), consulted on Wednesday by AFP.

It also aims to “maintain pressure on ISWAP” and “cut its supply lines”, the text describes.

According to a report drawn up by the army, some 20 “terrorists have been neutralized” and “83 suspected Boko Haram terrorists” captured and handed over to the Nigerian authorities.

In addition, three “enemy” bases, logistical depots, and motorcycles were destroyed and weapons were seized.

The operation was conducted from March 13 to 19 by the Nigerien military of the Mixed Multinational Force (MMF) an 8,500-strong force launched in July 2015 by Niger, Nigeria, Chad, and Cameroon, to fight armed jihadist groups.

Meanwhile, the Nigerien military claims to have intercepted and handed over to Nigerien authorities a total of 1,121 suspected Boko Haram members, including women and children.

These people live in the Sambissa forest in northeastern Nigeria and travel to the Nigerian islands of Lake Chad to flee fighting with their rivals in the Islamic State in West Africa (Iswap).

On March 11, it had also killed “some 30 terrorists” who refused to surrender.

According to the Nigerien army, clashes between ISWAP and Boko Haram over “several months” have forced families to leave Sambissa and take refuge on the islands of Lake Chad in Niger.

The basin of this lake, which stretches its shores between Nigeria, Niger, Cameroon, and Chad, is a vast expanse of water and swamps where the jihadist groups Boko Haram and Iswap have set up lairs in the countless islands.