A day after the IMF/World Bank announced a $50 billion aid package to help poor countries contain the coronavirus outbreak; Cameroon confirmed its first two cases of the deadly virus; a 58-year-old French national and a Cameroonian who came in contact with him, after he arrived Yaoundé on Feb 24. The public health minister said in separate communiqués that both patients were isolated at the Yaoundé Central hospital where they are receiving “symptomatic treatment” (whatever that means). The Health minister also ask those who had contact with the index case to call a toll-free number to “receive appropriate care” while assuring public opinion that “everything is being done to contain this outbreak without undue delay, in conformity with the high instructions from the President of the Republic, HE Mr. Paul Biya.”The feudal deference to Mr. President aside, the health minister’s belated effort to calm frayed nerves cannot be taken to signify successful containment; rather, it is an expression of a luxurious desire which signposts the absence of an emergency healthcare plan that should have been activated to contain the virus. This unpreparedness is most pathetic and tragic and Cameroonians deserve better.

It is indeed embarrassing to note that this epidemic has taken Cameroon unawares. How can the government’s containment strategy be anchored on self-reporting using a toll-free number? What happens if someone calls and reports that he/she is witnessing symptoms of the coronavirus? Is there a team of trained health personnel with the appropriate test-kits, including an ambulance ready to take such a patient and all those who have been exposed to him to a quarantine facility, assuming such a facility even exists? Alternatively, will such a patient be ordered to self-quarantine at home; and how will the patient be monitored? Amid global warnings about the coronavirus that has claimed over 3,000 plus lives and infected no fewer than 100,000 people, the health minister’s verbal pugilism advertises in spectacular fashion, a certain poverty of ideas on the part of those who govern Cameroon even in matters that are supposedly routine; and is indicative of a failure of leadership in the country. This is a public shame to a nation that should have outgrown primary healthcare challenges.

As official rhetoric and public grandstanding drives fear into the complex matrix over the unfolding coronavirus crisis, the gravity of the epidemic demands an urgent, robust and holistic national response, beyond laconic press statements designed to aggrandize the president. Even more disheartening, there is still no concerted effort by competent health workers to screen passengers arriving at Cameroon airports to determine whether they are sick or exhibited any symptoms of the coronavirus. It is shocking that a country like Cameroon does not even have one facility that such patients can be isolated. The WHO representative in Cameroon told CRTV that the test of the infected French national was done at Centre Pasteur in Yaoundé. This begs the question: what is the capacity of Centre Pasteur to handle an epidemic in which thousands of people get infected through community transmission?

With a shambolic healthcare system, decrepit health infrastructure, acerbic poverty and political volatility, most hospitals lack isolation or quarantine units, personal protection equipment (PPE) and trained personnel to carry out the necessary care against the coronavirus. Does the Health Minister need any reminder that laboratory confirmation of coronavirus diagnosis requires equipment, test kits and trained personnel that most Cameroon hospitals don’t have? It is utterly ridiculous for the government to ask people who have had contact with the index case to self-report or self-isolate or self-quarantine. There is no beneficial value in government’s misplaced self-vindication, amid reports that the government was struggling to contact the passengers who were exposed to the Frenchman who brought the coronavirus to Cameroon. As an urgent public safety imperative, the government should publish the flight manifest to enable the public identify passengers on that plane who were exposed and might have been infected by the Frenchman.

The implications of the other passengers still roaming at large and interacting with the public is the potential infection of hundreds, if not thousands of other people, aggravating the risk of widespread infection given that every infected person is said to infect at least two other people. Because for each day a coronavirus patient stays at home, family and all contacts are endangered, it is, therefore, better left to the imagination, the terrible consequences, specifically on public health and on public psyche of what evidently is a disaster waiting to happen! Against the backdrop of this doomsday scenario coupled with the dire indicators on the state of official unpreparedness to handle the coronavirus crisis, the question must be asked: what is this nation ever prepared for? The world is on red alert over the deadly coronavirus, yet Cameroonians are left to the vagaries of life while their leaders do nothing. Not even an emergency budgetary allocation has been earmarked to contain the virus. This is unacceptable!

The coronavirus is sufficiently serious a disease as to warrant the declaration of a national emergency by the government, wherein all hospitals (public and private), and health personnel across the country are put on red alert. Unfortunately, corrupt Cameroonian government officials with their remarkable genius for travesty seem more interested in transforming the coronavirus epidemic into another cash cow to line their pockets; as some have done with the ongoing armed insurgency in the Anglophone regions. The rumor mill has also spun beyond reason, misinforming the public with all manner of unfounded cures and remedies with no scientific basis. It was claimed in some quarters that drinking beer and eating bitter kola was a potent remedy and Cameroonians promptly descended on beer and bitter kola, until the rumor was debunked; saving them from the tragedy of their ignorance. Some Cameroonians view the timing of the confirmed cases as inauspicious, believing it is just a ploy by the regime to attract a share of the promised $50 billion IMF/World Bank largesse to help poor countries contain the coronavirus outbreak. Be that as it may.

The coronavirus is a national crisis of monumental proportion as the World Health Organization (WHO) has all but declared it a global pandemic. The deadly virus can wipe out scores of people in a matter of days if unchecked. The disease is contracted by direct contact with an infected person and the virus can remain within an infected person for as long as three weeks after exposure before manifesting. The symptoms progress from fever to nausea, headache, sore throat, tiredness, muscle pain, vomiting, diarrhea, coughing and neck-stiffness. So far, there is no vaccine or known cure as scientists are still working on a number of trial drugs that are expected to be ready not earlier than 18 months. Therefore, the government must continue to take coronavirus seriously and sustain public enlightenment through traditional as well as the now very popular social media, on measures to prevent or contain it. Scrupulous personal hygiene, avoidance of contact with suspected victims, and immediate report of suspected cases to health authorities, are just some of the steps the public should take.   

The outbreak of the coronavirus in Cameroon, once again, presents a challenge to the authorities to address basic social amenities that make for improved living conditions for the average Cameroonian. While the world struggles to develop a potent cure, the best way out now is good hygiene. Keeping the living environment clean is essential. All must be careful, people should as much as possible avoid crowded areas, while churches, mosques and other religious houses should control meetings that bring too many people into contact with one another. The same goes for CPDM rallies. Commercial cyclists (Bendskin) could also be at risk of spreading the virus through body contacts. The times call for a rapid holistic response, targeting short-term measures and long-term improvement in human development indices, not slogans and empty bureaucratic noises and public grandstanding because one thing is clear – the coronavirus puts everybody at risk.

By Ekinneh Agbaw-Ebai

Anna Nga longed to see her children return to the classroom again.

A deadly conflict between Cameroonian government forces and separatist fighters seeking independence for the mainly English-speaking Southwest and Northwest regions has left many schools closed for more than three years.

In late January, with the threat of further violence looming larger ahead of the February 9 parliamentary and municipal elections, Nga travelled across the border to Nigeria.

“We had to move to save our heads,” said the 35-year-old.

Nga now lives with her six children and four other minors related to her in the border village of Ajassor in southeast Nigeria’s Cross River state.

Nga did not move alone.

Nearly 8,000 new arrivals – some of whom struggled through dense forests and grasslands bleeding from gunshot wounds – crossed into Nigeria’s Cross River and Taraba states before the elections, according to the UN refugee agency, UNHCR.

Anglophone crisis

What is commonly known as Cameroon’s Anglophone crisis was triggered by demonstrations by lawyers and teachers in 2016 over the rising influence of French in their education and legal systems.

With frustration over alleged political and economic marginalisation high, the protesters’ action soon morphed into wider demands and resulted in several strikes. Although talk of marginalisation is not new, the action by barristers and teachers became a rallying point for Anglophone Cameroonians who had voted to join the majority French Cameroon to form the United Republic of Cameroon in 1961.

The government’s military response failed to reduce tensions, as government forces were accused of carrying out arbitrary arrests and extrajudicial killings, among other abuses.

In response, a slew of separatist groups rose to fight back and demand independence.

Inside Cameroon, the UN estimates that the conflict has killed about 3,000 people and displaced more than 679,000 others in the Anglophone regions, which comprise 20 percent of the country’s estimated 25 million population.

UNICEF, the UN’s children’s fund, estimates that more than 855,000 children remain out of school in the Anglophone regions where 80 percent of schools remain closed.

Meanwhile, some 60,000 people have fled to neighbouring Nigeria, spread across the states of Akwa Ibom, Benue, Cross River and Taraba.

Glory Tiku says she is struggling to fend for herself and her baby [Linus Unah/Al Jazeera] 

In Ajassor, in a windowless room packed with nearly a dozen children, Nga happily looks on as her children put on bright school uniforms and get ready to head to school.

She pays between 2,000 ($5.4) and 5,500 ($15) naira per child for the local school, which has accepted refugee children alongside their regular students. 

But Nga, who is not registered as a refugee because the UNHCR registration process has not started for new arrivals, is worried about her family’s future in Nigeria.

“I am paying rent and then school fees for five children,” she says, her face contorting. “It is very difficult for me without any work.”

About 47.5 percent of refugees seeking asylum in Nigeria live in four settlements built by the UNHCR, while the rest live in about 87 host communities across Akwa Ibom, Benue, Cross River and Taraba.

Many Cameroonians who live in host communities have limited access to education, healthcare, relief items and livelihoods.

In Cross River state, which hosts 69.5 percent of Cameroonian refugees in Nigeria, there are three settlements for refugees in the town of Ogoja.

Permanent shelters made of red bricks and topped with corrugated zinc roofing appear everywhere.

Most of the people here used to receive cash-based interventions (CBI) of 7,200 naira ($20) per month from the UNHCR to cover food and basic needs. But refugees who spoke to Al Jazeera said there have been occasional delays in receiving the payments, which have also been reduced to 4,600 naira ($12) since January.

“Before the CBI comes, I have already borrowed money to feed and take care of my baby,” said 18-year-old Glory Tiku, adding that her monthly payment is not enough to feed her and her four-month-old baby.

“We usually start paying debts with some of the money whenever it comes.”

Some refugees living in host communities in Cross River told Al Jazeera they are unable to receive their CBIs because they cannot afford to spend up to 3,000 naira ($8) to travel to Ogoja where the money is disbursed.

The UNHCR says it will invest more funds into livelihood interventions to help refugees become self-reliant.

The agency is hoping to raise an additional $27.3m for refugees in Nigeria, but funding for this supplementary appeal stood at 56 percent in early December.

Adagom-3 settlement for Cameroonian refugees was established in late 2019; it hosts more than 500 refugees [Linus Unah/Al Jazeera]

At Adagom-3, a new settlement for more than 500 refugees created late last year in Ogoja, asylum-seekers said they did not receive essential items such as mosquito nets, mats, mattresses and cooking utensils when moving into their new houses.

“They think refugees are inferior beings, [but] one day we will rise and protest,” a refugee in his 50s said.

To survive, refugees in the settlements work as farm labourers in exchange for 500 naira ($1.4) or a tuber of yam or cassava after a day’s work.

Meanwhile, the UNHCR has teamed up with its partners to provide agricultural supplies to some refugees to help them operate micro-gardens to feed their families.

But some refugees felt the initiatives did not go far enough.

“You can’t call these projects empowerment because nothing has changed, really,” a refugee in Ajassor said.

“The wheelbarrows given to people here started having bad tyres and other issues, and there is barely water to even bathe – much less to water the garden.”

Worsening situation

Back in Cameroon, the simmering conflict continues to deteriorate, with human rights groups accusing both sides of committing human rights abuses.

In December, Parliament passed a law giving the two English-speaking regions “special status” in the wake of a national dialogue where participants made several recommendations, including electing local governors and integrating ex-fighters into society. 

Ilaria Allegrozzi, senior Central Africa researcher at Human Rights Watch, told Al Jazeera the separatists had not participated in the process.

“The National Dialogue did not prevent the worsening of the crisis in the English-speaking regions and the escalation of violence. The separatists, most of whose leaders are based outside Cameroon or are in prison in Cameroon, did not take part in the dialogue,” Allegrozzi said.READ MORE

Meanwhile, violence continues to affect civilians.

On February 14, at least 21 people, including 14 children, were killed by armed men in Ngarbuh village in the Northwest region.

“The killings in Ngarbuh village were deliberate and carried out by government forces with armed ethnic Fulani,” Allegrozzi said.

“The government denies that its troops have committed these crimes, but denying only adds another layer of trauma and suffering to survivors and will only encourage new abuses.”

Last week, President Paul Biya established a commission of inquiry to investigate the killings in Ngarbuh, state-owned Cameroon Radio Television reported.

Allegrozzi said finding a long-lasting solution to the crisis would be challenging.

“We continue to believe that the crisis cannot be resolved unless fundamental questions related to justice and accountability for the human rights violations committed by both sides – government forces and armed separatists – are addressed,” she explained.

“Only a strong commitment to justice and fight against impunity can help to address the crisis.”

For now, Nga Anna has no plans of returning home.

As the sun blazes over the corrugated roofing of her single room, she shuffles to the veranda to chat with her children who have just returned from school.

“I want to become a lawyer so that I can judge cases when the crisis stops,” 15-year-old Kelia Akah, one of her daughters, announced.

Her mother chuckled, patting her on the shoulder.

“I am not moving back until the country becomes fine,” Nga said, her voice imbued with a hint of finality.

SOURCE: AL JAZEERA NEWS