Anti-Covid-19 measures at West African airports: a regrettable cacophony
Audio 04:14
A health worker checks the temperature of a traveler as part of the coronavirus screening procedure at Kotoka International Airport in Accra, Ghana, January 30, 2020. REUTERS / Francis Kokoroko
By: Gilles Yabi Follow
9 min
While the ECOWAS is in a delicate position in the current political crises in the region, especially in Guinea and Côte d'Ivoire where an election is taking place under pressure today, you have chosen to highlight the lack of regional coordination of health measures at airports, a coordination that could have made life easier for travelers in West Africa since the reopening of air borders.
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It is regrettable that on concrete questions which concern the citizens of the countries of the West African regional space, considered to be the most integrated on the continent, there is no common policy that would apply to all the airports in the region. .
The professor of sociology Francis Akindès, based in Ivory Coast, had however launched in July, on the platform change.org, a petition which called for "
anti-covid-19 measures harmonized at the borders of the countries of the Cédéao
”.
Here is what the text of this petition said, which can still be signed today: "
The measures vary so much from one country to another that candidates for travel are not found there.
While the need to slow the progression of the pandemic through border control remains essential, it is also imperative that ECOWAS coordinate a common, clear and rational definition of measures both at the internal borders and at the external borders of the Community, in order to to facilitate the mobility of travelers.
Thus, common decisions, once validated by all States, must be displayed and applied in full transparency at the various borders for the happiness and safety of users.
"
Three months later, it is still the puzzle for travelers who do not know where to find information on each country of destination. Some examples of these national measures.
I must first say that the measures are evolving in each country and that the latest information collected can quickly become outdated.
So, on arrival in Dakar, each passenger must present a negative Covid-19 test result dating from less than five days.
The cost of the test at Dakar airport is 40,000 FCFA.
Upon arrival at Abidjan airport in Côte d'Ivoire, the negative test certificate must be less than five days old.
The cost of the test is 48,000.
In Cotonou in Benin, any traveler who disembarks is subjected to the screening test at the airport and this costs 50,000 FCFA, since early September.
The test cost 100,000 FCFA before this revision.
For families, the bill could quickly be staggering.
In Ghana, any passenger disembarking in Accra must be provided with a negative test, carried out less than 72 hours before departure.
And he must pass another mandatory test carried out in the airport terminal, at his expense which is still US $ 150 or about 85 000 FCFA.
In Lomé, Togo, passengers are subjected to tests in a specially equipped laboratory.
An application called Togo Safe, launched on September 4 for the tracing of contacts of Covid-19 cases, must be downloaded by travelers on arrival.
The technological approach is interesting, but for those familiar with the security control culture of the Togolese government, a tracing application may raise some reservations.
What is clear is that there is no common policy at regional level.
It is a shame, because African organizations had reacted rather quickly and well to the start of the epidemic on the continent.
This was particularly the case with the African Union through its Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and ECOWAS.
As of February 14, 2020, the Ministers of Health of the ECOWAS countries met in Bamako.
And on April 23, it was the turn of West African heads of state to meet by videoconference at an extraordinary summit on the pandemic.
As too often, unfortunately, good intentions were lost along the way, and ECOWAS again missed the opportunity to give a strong signal of its desire to be at the service of the people by making their lives easier.
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