Last week, a tragic video went viral on social media. It was a clip from the United States Africa Leaders Summit held in Washington DC in December 2022. In the clip, Cameroon’s president, 89-year-old Paul Biya, appears to be completely unaware of where he is and what role he is supposed to be playing.

As his aides helped him to the stage, where he was supposed to give a presentation after one by Rwanda’s president, Paul Kagame, Biya can be heard asking who the people in the audience are. Looking very confused, he asks his aide why the audience is there and states that he did not ask for the event...