Cameroon: First Lady Chantal Biya absent from World Women's Day celebration

Cameroon’s first lady Madam Chantal Biya was conspicuously absent during celebrations marking this year’s World Women's Day. The nationwide event started with a women’s fashion show at the 20th May Boulevard in Yaounde. The 30th edition of the International Women's Day held on Tuesday in the absence of both the first lady, Chantal Biya and her husband. 

Cameroon Concord understands Chantal Biya and the head of state left the country since the 23rd of  February 2016 for what is often described by state owned radio and television as a "short private stay in Europe." Some of the women who took part in the Yaounde festivities were heard murmuring privately how a Goodwill Ambassador of UNESCO could afford to miss out in such day of international significance.

Despite Chantal Biya’s absence, Cameroonian women in all categories sacrificed and performed the scantily attended parade ritual in the presence of Hon. Marie Thérèse Abena Ondoa, one of President Biya’s numerous cabinet minister in charge of promoting women affairs.