Will President Biya attend Trump’s inauguration on Monday?

By Hans Ngala

As United States president-elect Donald Trump returns to the White House on Monday to begin his second term as 47th US president, an official list of guests has already been sent out.
Will Cameroon’s President Paul Biya be in attendance?
That’s the question CNA put to an official at the Unity Palace who opted not to be named but said:
“By practice, I doubt if there will be any delegation. Our ambassador may, of course, be there. The Unity Palace does not have a history of attending such ceremonies. Besides, there is nothing so special about Trump”.
Cameroon’s ambassador in Washington DC is Henri Etoundi Essomba and while it may appear that President Paul Biya will not be in attendance at Trump’s inauguration, Essomba may represent Biya at the event if he was extended an invitation.
South Africa – the US’ largest ally in Africa has not been invited to the event. A spokesperson for President, Cyril Ramaphosa confirmed to South Africa’s IOL News that Ramaphosa was not invited to Trump’s inauguration.
Relations between Pretoria and Washington DC thawed when Trump during his first term waded in on domestic South African issues, making false claims that white farmers’ farms were being seized by South African authorities. Trump also disparaged the continent when he used expletives to describe African countries.
While Trump seems to have developed a sort of fan base among some ordinary African citizens, many of the continent’s leaders are not so keen on his second term in office as it is seen largely as a non-event to them.
It is more than likely that no Cameroonian official may be at Trump’s inauguration at all and likely that only the Cameroonian ambassador may attend if at all he was invited by US officials.
Cameroon, like most African countries, has increasingly turned to China and not the US in recent years. A glaring example of this is the construction of Cameroon’s new parliament building in Yaounde, built by the Chinese at the cost of 55 Billion CFA and inaugurated in December 2024.
Under Trump’s first presidency from 2017 to 2021, U.S. foreign direct investment in Africa decreased from $56.6 billion to $46.9 billion – a decline of more than $10 billion, a reflection of Trump’s lack of interest in Africa. Meanwhile, China has increased its investment in Africa, funneling an estimated $25 billion into South Africa alone for projects in communications, finance, energy, and manufacturing.