Cameroon’s President Paul Biya, in power for almost 36 years, was sworn into office for seven more years on Tuesday, after winning October’s election in a landslide.

The 85-year old, one of Africa’s longest-ruling leaders, won the October presidential poll for the seventh time, in spite his questionable record that includes corruption and human rights abuse allegations.

During his inaugural speech, Biya acknowledged the “frustrations’’ of people in the English-speaking north-west and south-west regions, who feel marginalised in the otherwise French-speaking country.

The president promised to fast-track the decentralisation process to render local councils more autonomous, but condemned Anglophone secessionists, who have held regular protests over the past two years and sometimes stage violent attacks.

However, the president remained mum about Sunday’s abduction of 79 students, their principal, the school’s driver and another staff member from a Christian secondary school in western Cameroon.

The abduction seems to be part of a plan by Anglophone secessionists to shut down all schools in the disputed regions, in a move to make the area ungovernable.

Biya was declared winner of the presidential poll with more than 71 per cent of total votes cast on Oct. 22. (NAN)