President Paul Biya's party held a campaign rally in Maroua on 7 October 2025, days before the presidential election, where he said women and young people would be at the center of the coming term, Mimi Mefo Info and Cameroun Actuel reported on 7 October 2026.
In the speech, Biya said: "J'ai pris l'engagement que la situation des femmes et des jeunes serait au coeur de mes preoccupations au cours du septennat a venir. Je tiendrai parole." He added: "Je ne me resignerai jamais a la situation actuelle. Je ne prendrai aucun repos tant que des progres significatifs n'auront pas ete realises en la matiere." Both outlets quote the same passage.
A year later, Mimi Mefo Info reported that the government team has not changed since January 2019, with no woman or young person appointed to lead a strategic ministry such as Defense, Finance or Territorial Administration, or a large state company.
Mimi Mefo Info also reported that the constitutional revision creating the post of vice-president of the Republic has not been applied, and that the title remains unfilled. It said the president's published decrees have dealt mainly with reorganizing military commands and authorizing bond issues to cover the budget deficit.
On employment, Mimi Mefo Info reported that professional integration programs for young people have not materialized, leaving graduates and informal workers in structural underemployment. On infrastructure, it reported delays on road construction and maintenance, which it said have turned several regional economic corridors into recurrent logistical problems. On violence against women, it reported a rise in documented femicide and gender-based violence cases and said legislative and judicial responses have been absent.
Mimi Mefo Info concluded that the roadmap announced in Maroua has so far amounted to a campaign stance and that the executive has settled into an institutional status quo. The article is written as an assessment of the first year of the term.
Cameroun Actuel published an article on the same day under the headline "One year after the Maroua promise, where does Paul Biya's 'septennat of women and young people' stand?" Its summary repeats the Maroua date, location and the identification of young people and women as priorities, and states that a year later the national situation shows acute institutional paralysis and a gap between stated intentions and the reality of power.
The material does not state whether the 2025 election result was contested or how the term in question began, and neither outlet's text in the cluster reports the outcome of the election or a swearing-in. Neither Mimi Mefo Info nor Cameroun Actuel reports whether Biya holds a party function beyond the campaign candidacy described, or whether the government has responded to the two articles. Neither outlet reports the names of the women or young people it says were not appointed, or the specific ministries it considers strategic beyond those it lists.
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