Cameroon's 91-year-old president, Paul Biya, is in good health, the government said on Tuesday in a statement, calling widespread reports saying otherwise "pure fantasy."
Biya has not been seen in public since attending a China-Africa forum in Beijing in early September.
His failure to appear as scheduled at a summit in France last weekend stoked speculation that the nonagenarian was unwell.
"Rumours of all kinds have been circulating through the conventional media and social networks about the president's condition," government spokesperson Rene Sadi said in the statement.
Calls had mounted about Biya's whereabouts
"The government unequivocally states that these rumours are pure fantasy ... and hereby issues a formal denial."
Opposition parties and civil society groups have been calling for an update on the status of Biya's health and his exact whereabouts.
After Beijing, Biya paid a private visit to Europe, Sadi said. "The head of state is in good health and will be returning to Cameroon in the coming days."
With no clear succession plan, Biya's absence would bring political uncertainty in Cameroon.
Cocoa and oil-producing Cameroon, which has had just two presidents since independence from France and Britain in the early 1960s, is in the grips of a secessionist war that has killed thousands and a violent Boko Haram insurgency in the north.
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