Cameroon's veteran president makes bid for seventh

YAOUNDE (Reuters) – Cameroon's President Paul Biya said on Friday he would run for re-election in October, aiming to extend his 36-year rule and keep his place on the roster of Africa's longest-serving leaders.

The 85-year-old who came to power in 1982 when his predecessor retired in the United States.

Robert Mugabe and Gambia's Yahya Jammeh were ousted in 2017. Of Africa's living rulers, only Equatorial Guinea's President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo has ruled uninterrupted for longer.

"I am willing to respond positively to your overwhelming calls. election, "Biya said in a tweet."

Biya, who has ruled out virtually by decree since taking office, scrapped term limits from the constitution in 2008,

After a meeting with Biya on Friday, the African Union Commission Chairman Moussa Faki said the organization would send an observation mission to the Oct. 7 polls, which come at a turbulent time for the Central African country and for Biya.

A separatist insurgency in the western English-speaking regions has more than 80 troops since September, a drop in the price of Cameroon's key cocoa and oil exports has weighed on the economy.

A convoy carrying Cameroon's defense minister , Joseph Beti Assomo, was attacked on Thursday in the southwest, spokesman Colonel Didier Badjeck said on Friday.

The minister was unharmed and the convoy resumed its journey, Badjeck said.

(Reporting by Josiane Kouagheu, Writing by Sofia Christensen, Editing by Edward McAllister, Catherine Evans, and Andrew Heavens)