Cameroon’s Counterfeit Diplomacy: Biya’s Forged “Messages of Congratulations”

A Regime Forging Its Own Applause

There seems no limit to the indignities Cameroonians must endure under Paul Biya’s crumbling rule. Each time the regime hits rock bottom, it digs deeper into the pit of disgrace.
The latest scandal — forged diplomatic “messages of congratulations” following the October 12, 2025 presidential election — marks a new low even by the standards of Yaoundé’s propaganda machine. These fake communiqués, published by the presidency to suggest Biya’s re-election enjoyed global endorsement, were riddled with errors and inconsistencies that would shame a novice forger.

One so-called “Note Verbale” attributed to Guinea confused Guinea (Conakry) with Equatorial Guinea, misnamed leaders, and collapsed regional geography into nonsense. A letter allegedly from Russia bore no signature, reference, or seal — its date visibly altered with a ballpoint pen. Incredibly, the presidency released these amateur fakes as proof of legitimacy.

What the regime calls diplomacy is pure necromancy — raising ghosts of recognition to haunt a stolen election. This spectacle is not governance; it is parody. Cameroon has become a case study in how power, once detached from truth, turns absurd.

The Stolen Election

Few credible observers accept the official result declaring Biya the winner with 53.66 percent. Independent counts suggest opposition figure Issa Tchiroma carried the vote.
The Constitutional Council, as in every election since 1992, ratified the fraud. Protests erupted nationwide, met with tear gas, arrests, and live bullets, leaving at least 49 dead, according to UN and Reuters reports.

When even state loyalists hesitated to celebrate, the presidency reached for the unthinkable — forging the world’s applause to crown its theft.

Global Silence as Condemnation

No major power or international organization has congratulated Biya. France, the US, Germany, the UK, the EU, China, Russia, Nigeria, and South Africa all withheld recognition.
The United Nations, African Union, and Commonwealth merely “took note” of results — diplomatic code for disapproval. In diplomacy, silence is the loudest rebuke.

By counterfeiting letters of congratulations, the regime has admitted what the world already knows: it stands alone.

A Pattern of Deceit

This episode is no aberration. It follows a pattern of deception spanning years:

• In 2018, the regime paraded fake “Transparency International observers.”

• In 2015, Biya’s office posted staged photos claiming he was paying homage to soldiers killed by Boko Haram while he was actually in Geneva.
  The same architecture of lies now infects diplomacy itself.

In an age of instant verification, forgery is lunacy — yet Etoudi’s courtiers resort to it because they no longer possess reality to manipulate.

The Cost of Counterfeit Diplomacy

Each fake communiqué further destroys Cameroon’s standing. Investors and partners recoil from a government willing to forge its own legitimacy.
Domestically, cynicism curdles into fury. When elections, dissent, and even diplomacy are falsified, only hopelessness remains.

A genuine leader earns legitimacy through service; a pretender seeks it through forgery. Biya’s counterfeit letters are the ink-stained fingerprints of fear.

A Call to Conscience

The world must not avert its eyes. Forging diplomatic correspondence is not a minor scandal — it is an assault on the norms of global diplomacy.

• The African Union should invoke Article 30 of its Constitutive Act and suspend Cameroon’s membership until credible elections occur.

• The EU, US, and Commonwealth must impose targeted sanctions on officials in the Presidency, ELECAM, and the Constitutional Council complicit in electoral fraud and post-election killings.

• The UN Human Rights Council should open an inquiry into state-sponsored repression and document falsification.

Silence now would make the world complicit in deceit.

A Regime on Borrowed Time

At 93, Paul Biya is a metaphor for national decay — a ruler clinging to relevance through illusion. These forged letters, meant to prove strength, have become his epitaph.
History will record that in its final days, the Biya regime lost even the ability to distinguish truth from its own hallucinations.

No amount of counterfeit diplomacy can legitimize counterfeit power. Cameroon’s night has been long, but dawn always breaks — and truth, however delayed, cannot be forged.