After a very busy afternoon, the Heads of State, other delegation leaders and Cameroon’s political, administrative, and judicial hierarchy got together at State House last night for dinner offered by President Biya and First Lady Chantal. 

To ensure that their guests were given very close attention, the First Couple took a vantage position at the entrance to State House at 8 PM, warmly shaking hands with all the guests as they came in. Before this, all national guests invited to the occasion had taken their seats in the banquet hall.

At about 8.05 PM, President Ali Bongo Ondimba arrived, opening a succession of other arrivals of Heads of State which continued until 8.45 with the arrival of President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. All the 12 Presidents, except Blaise Compaore, who had left in the late afternoon, took a short rest at the Ambassadors’ lounge upstairs before descending, in a group, into the banquet hall downstairs where they had occasion to taste of the best in Cameroonian cuisine.

The Heads of State, who had been joined later in the day by the acting President of Guinea Bissau, Manuel Serifo Nhamajo who could not be at the opening ceremony of the summit, were visibly satisfied by the quality of the menu proposed. It was a pleasurable manner of ending a long and work-jammed day.