Joe Dinga Pefok (Uncle Joe)
Senior Journalist, Polycarpe Essomba, RFI Correspondent In Cameroon, On Tuesday, August 18, 2026, Reported On His Facebook Page, That President Biya Will Be Back Home Within 48 Hours. The ‘Scoop’ Immediately Went Viral. There Has So Far Been No Official Confirmation. However, The Indomitable Lionesses Are Still At Mont Febe Hotel In Yaounde, Waiting To Be Received By The President.
The senior female national football team of Cameroon, the Indomitable Lionesses, returned to the country, precisely to the nation’s capital, Yaounde, on Monday, August 17, 2026, with the trophy of the 2026 Women’s Africa Cup of Nations (WAFCON 2026), which they won in Rabat, Morocco on Sunday, August 16, after pounding Malawi by a 3 – 0.
The Indomitable Lionesses got back home, when the President of the Republic, Paul Biya, who left the country with his wife, Chantal, since June 7, 2026, for what the Civil Cabinet at the Presidency said was a “brief private stay” in Europe, had still not returned home.
Indomitable Lionesses Are Waiting For The President
Meanwhile, upon the arrival of the Indomitable Lionesses at the Yaounde –Nsimalen International Airport on that August 17, to a hilarious welcome by the population, the players and technical staff were driven to the State owned ‘Mont Febe Hotel’. On Tuesday, August 18, the players and technical staff were not allowed to leave the hotel by Cameroonian authorities. Some sources close to the Presidency, disclosed that the players of the female national football team, will hopefully be officially received with the trophy by the presidential couple this week, if it is finally possible for President Biya to return home this week.
The sources which said the Presidency was still waiting for confirmation on the possible return of President Biya to the country this week, further disclosed that in case it is not possible for the President to rerun home this week, the Prime Minister or the Secretary General at the Presidency, will likely on “high instruction’ be asked to officially receive the Indomitable Lionesses, on behalf of the President of the Republic. It should be noted that some of the Lionesses that play professional football abroad, are already being awaited by their clubs that have started training, ahead of the start of 2026 / 2027 football season.
“President Biya To Return Home Within 48 Hours”
Meanwhile, in the afternoon of Tuesday, August 18, 2026, senior journalist, Polycarpe Essomba, the Cameroon correspondent of Radio France Internationale’, FRI, reported on his Facebook page that President Biya will return to Cameroon within 48 hours, that is, latest on Thursday, August 20, 2026. The ‘scoop’ immediately went viral, probably because the information came from an FRI journalist. Some people even got into misinformation, alleging in their social media posts that the information was reported by FRI.
However Polycarpe Essomba, who happens to be in a whatsApp forum with this reporter (The Mentor), confirmed in an audio message posted on the forum. that the information came from him. But Essomba insisted on the fact that though he is a reporter or an employee of FRI, the media organ had nothing to do with the report.. Essomba said he got the information from his sources, and posted the report on his Facebook page as an individual, and not as an FRI correspondent.
Meanwhile as by the end of Tuesday, August 18, the Presidency had neither confirmed nor denied Essomba’s report. So the veracity of the information remains a matter of wait and see.
Worthy of note that the senior journalist, Polycarpe Essomba, that has been an FRI correspondent for several years, is the former Editor –in – Chief of Equinoxe TV in Douala.
