World’s oldest head of state, Cameroon’s President, Paul Biya, 92, has been officially declared the winner of the country’s 2025 Presidential Election, extending his decades-long rule by another seven years.

The Constitutional Council made the declaration on Monday, revealing that Biya secured 53.66 per cent of the votes, defeating opposition candidate Issa Tchiroma, who polled 35.19 per cent.

“Hereby proclaimed President-elect: the candidate Biya Paul,” said Clement Atangana, president of the Constitutional Council.

Although the election was held on October 12, the results were only confirmed on Monday.

Tchiroma, who has consistently challenged Biya’s 43-year hold on power, rejected the election outcome, claiming that he actually won with 54.8 percent of the votes.

Prior to the announcement, the opposition leader had urged his supporters to hold peaceful marches, despite a government ban on public gatherings.

Tensions escalated in the commercial city of Douala on Sunday, where clashes erupted between security forces and opposition supporters.

The Littoral Regional Governor, Samuel Dieudonne Ivaha Diboua, confirmed that four people were killed in the violence, while several security personnel sustained injuries.

“Four people unfortunately lost their lives,” he said, adding that demonstrators had allegedly attacked a gendarmerie brigade and two police stations.

With this win, Biya, who has ruled Cameroon since 1982, will now continue into his eighth term, making him one of Africa’s longest-serving leaders.

A law which would allow King Charles III to formally strip Prince Andrew of his dukedom is being introduced in the House of Commons on Wednesday.

The prince announced that he would stop using his Duke of York title to avoid distracting from the work of the royal family, but an act of parliament would be required to formally remove the dukedom.

York Central member of parliament (MP) Rachael Maskell has set out legislation which would grant Charles the power to remove titles.

The proposed new law would give the monarch the power to remove titles on his own initiative, following a recommendation of a joint committee of parliament, or at the request of the person who holds the title.

According to Maskell, “it is time for parliament to act so that it can, or the monarch can, remove titles.

“The Duke of York title may no longer be being used by its holder, but it has not been removed.

“My short bill, The Removal of Titles Bill, will fix this; I hope it can now be supported by parliament.”

The bill stands little chance of becoming law without government support and ministers have resisted calls to act, insisting such decisions are for the king.

Maskell had the Labour whip suspended in July after being a key figure in the revolt over welfare reforms.

Once the bill is published, Maskell said she will send copies of it to Buckingham Palace and to the prime minister in an effort to build support.

“My hope is that there will be discussions between the palace and parliament to determine the necessity of this and how it can be achieved,” she said.

She told the PA news agency the legislation could have wider implications beyond Prince Andrew, including allowing rogue members of the House of Lords to be stripped of their peerages.

“It’s not targeted at this event, obviously it’s triggered by this event, but it would sit on the statute to be used for any such future occasion,” she said.

“There could be reasons why parliament could wish to trigger such measures and it does include a whole range of titles.

“We’ve researched into this, it will include peerages, it will include, obviously, baronets and earls and dukes and all of that and then it will be for princes and princesses as well.

“So all titles which are given, it will be able to be removed.”

Maskell said the legislation could be passed very quickly if time was given to it in parliament.

“This is a neat, easy way of just tweaking the law,” she said.

The titles and honours Andrew will no longer use include his wedding day titles, Duke of York, the Earl of Inverness and Baron Killyleagh, his knighthood as a Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order (GCVO) and his garter role as a Royal Knight Companion of the Most Noble Order of the Garter.

Legislation has been used before to strip titles, notably descendants of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert who were on the German side in the First World War.

The Titles Deprivation Act 1917 was used two years later to strip the titles from Leopold Charles, duke of Albany, Earl of Clarence and Baron Arklow

Also stripped of their titles include; Ernest Augustus, duke of Cumberland and Teviotdale, earl of Armagh; Ernest Augustus, duke of Brunswick, prince of Great Britain and Ireland; and Henry, viscount taaffe of Corren and baron of Ballymote.

The law remains in force but as it refers specifically to the First World War, its provisions are unlikely to be relevant today.

A YouGov poll has suggested that four out of five Britons want Prince Andrew to be formally stripped of his dukedom.

The survey showed that 63 per cent of nearly 6,700 adults questioned were “strongly” in favour of formal removal of the dukedom and 17 per cent “somewhat” supporting the idea.

However, 6 per cent were opposed to it, while 4 per cent somewhat, 2 per cent strongly and 14 per cent did not know.

An elite military unit told AFP on Tuesday it had taken power in Madagascar after the national assembly voted to impeach President Andry Rajoelina for desertion of duty.

The 51-year-old president had refused growing demands to step down, going into hiding after weeks of anti-government street demonstrations in the island nation.

‘We have taken power’, Colonel Michael Randrianirina, head of the CAPSAT military unit, told AFP after reading out a statement at a government building in the capital.

The unit will set up a committee composed of officers from the army, gendarmerie, and national police, he said.

‘Perhaps in time it will include senior civilian advisers. It is this committee that will carry out the work of the presidency’, Randrianirina said in his statement.

‘At the same time, after a few days, we will set up a civilian government’, he said.

The announcement came minutes after the lower house of parliament voted to impeach Rajoelina in a session dismissed by the presidency as “devoid of any legal basis.”

Just hours earlier, Rajoelina had dissolved the national assembly by decree to block the session.

The impeachment passed with 130 votes in favour—well above the two-thirds constitutional threshold required in the 163-member chamber.

The High Constitutional Court has to validate the vote.

Rajoelina, a former mayor of the capital Antananarivo, said late Monday he was sheltering in a “safe space” after attempts on his life, without revealing his location.

The protests began on September 25 and reached a pivotal point at the weekend when mutinous soldiers and security forces, including CAPSAT, joined the demonstrators and called for the president and other government ministers to step down.