Yaoundé (AFP)

"Calamitous management", absence of "rigor", "blunders": the measures to fight against the coronavirus in Cameroon trigger avalanches of critics in one of the countries most affected by the pandemic in sub-Saharan Africa.

Late closing of borders, absence of confinement period, bars, restaurants and nightclubs remained open, masks imposed late, premature reopening of schools and universities ... Yaoundé seemed to delay and then sail on sight, suggesting that power did not take over. seriously the dangerousness of Covid-19 when many other African countries imposed radical measures very early on.

Moreover, the indestructible head of state, Paul Biya, in power for almost four decades, did not appear publicly on television until May 19, pressed by the opposition and even the WHO after more than two months of deafening silence when all his African peers took up the torch of the fight against the virus very early, publicly at least.

In less than three months, the number of cases rose from 1 to more than 6,500 officially at the beginning of June, for more than 200 deaths, out of a population of more than 25 million inhabitants.

- "The laughingstock of the world" -

"We have a particularly important progression of the epidemic, it is extremely serious", alarmed on May 24 on state television Professor Eugène Sobngwi, vice-president of the scientific council at the Ministry of Health, brandishing the risk that Cameroon becomes "the laughingstock of the world".

The assessments "should not alarm us because, so far, the government controls the situation," retorted on June 1 Manaouda Malachie, the Minister of Health, on state radio, in response also to countless concerns and criticism on social networks.

This progression is the result of a "calamitous management" of the pandemic by the government, however accuses Albert Ze, Cameroonian economist specializing in health, adding for AFP: "We missed the opportunity to contain this virus from the departure".

Cameroon thus closed its land, air and sea borders only on March 18, 12 days after the first "imported" case and weeks after many other African countries. And limited the number of people allowed in gatherings to 50 when others fixed it at 10.

We also had to wait until mid-March for other restrictive measures such as distancing on public transport and closing bars and restaurants, but only after 6 p.m. ...

To date, no general confinement has been imposed, as in countless countries across the continent and the world.

The impact of these measures had however been "immediate, and Cameroonians had understood that the problem was major," said Professor Yap Boum II, epidemiologist and head of a Doctors Without Borders (MSF) research center in Yaoundé.

"The compulsory wearing of a mask has reinforced this approach", but more than a month after the start of the epidemic, according to him. Although in progress, the spread of the virus was then "controlled", continues the epidemiologist.

- Open nightclubs -

Until April 30, the date on which the government, against all expectations, relaxed these restrictions, deplored Professor Boum: bars, restaurants and nightclubs were able to reopen after 6:00 p.m. and the distancing measures in public transport were reduced.

This "resulted in an almost total relaxation of the population, as if this announcement sounded the end of the epidemic," laments the scientist.

"We saw fewer and fewer people with masks and more and more people in bars, and a month later, we are more than triple" of reported cases and deaths, he notes, establishing a "direct link between this loosening of measures, the indiscipline that followed and the current situation".

Against all expectations also, the government reopened the doors of schools, colleges, high schools and universities on June 1 as it anticipates the peak of the epidemic "in June". A premature recovery in the absence of support, judge the teachers' unions.

"The state has made available a ridiculously low number of materials, 3,000 masks for example", not even one per teacher in high schools and colleges, deplores Roger Kaffo, secretary general of the National Autonomous Syndicate of Secondary Education (SNAES)

"We cannot afford to stop our countries, with fragile economies, like in the others", justifies Daniel Claude Abate, president of a local grouping of SMEs and activist of the Democratic Rally of the Cameroonian People (RDPC), the party in power.

"But, it should have been accompanied by police surveillance measures," he admits, conceding "some errors", "negligence" and "blunders".

© 2020 AFP