Female Africa Cup of Nations: How prepared is the city of Yaounde? ⁰

Yaoundé is an environmental scandal. Several neighbourhoods in the political capital of Cameroon are now littered with garbage. From Olembe, Messassi, Emana, Etoudi, Manguier, Etoa-Meki, Nkozoa, Mokolo, Mvan, Odza and Obili, garbage has overshadowed all the trash bins and rocked all the pavements, piled up on sidewalks and spilled onto the roadway.

Banana skins and pineapples, plastics, leftovers, packaging of all kinds constitute the filth on which dogs defecate in Yaounde, the nation’s capital. The situation has become more intractable as the mentally ill visit the garbage heaps in search of their daily bread.  Breeders seeking to feed their pigs have made these places their favourite homes.

At Etoudi some few meters from the presidency of the republic is a heap of animal entrails that give off strong odour and a sea of flies that usually settle on foodstuffs such as bread retailed in a nearby market. Inhabitants of the capital city are constantly being fed stories of a political dispute between HYSACAM, the company responsible for keeping the city clean and the Yaounde City Council.

Whereas, efforts are being made by British Southern Cameroons mayors of Tiko, Limbe and Buea to keep the cities clean for the Female Africa Cup of Nations, those of Douala and Yaounde are persisting with their “bras de fer” with HYSACAM.

Whosoever is going by that name Government Delegate to the Yaounde City Council should be told that visitors will start coming into our country soon as the female Africa Cup of Nations starts on the 19^th of November.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai with cables from Sama Ernest