Côte d'Ivoire: violent dismantling of a coronavirus center

The scene takes place in a large square in Yopougon, an important popular commune in Abidjan, in Côte d'Ivoire. Residents violently dismantled a center under construction to combat the coronavirus epidemic on Sunday (April 5th), said police and ministry of health officials.

On videos circulating on social networks, we see dozens of people at least dismantling a marquee under construction, some shouting "we don't want to!".

In #Abidjan, the populations do not want to live with the centers set up to receive patients from # COVID19. In Yopougon, they believe that the center is far too close to their homes ... they decided to break everything 💁🏾‍♂️ pic.twitter.com/fF3s1Wk2ch

"The people demonstrated against the installation of a center against the coronavirus, because they believe that it is located too inside a residential area," said a police official.

"A collection center"

It was not a patient treatment center, but "a collection center" which was under construction, "as there are set up everywhere," assured an official of the Ministry of Health.

It is the first time that violent incidents have been reported in the context of the Covid-19 epidemic in Côte d'Ivoire. This West African country is still relatively unaffected according to the official report, which reports Sunday 261 cases and three deaths.

However, the Ivorian authorities fear an expansion of the epidemic, and are rapidly increasing healthcare capacities.

Strict measures

Strict measures have been taken to fight the epidemic: quarantine of Abidjan with the rest of the country, night curfew throughout the territory, closure of all non-essential shops, schools and places of worship, ban on gatherings. But no containment so far.

The government announced on Tuesday a vast support plan of 1.7 trillion CFA francs (2.6 billion euros), to cope with the economic and social consequences of the epidemic, predicting that growth should be halved, to 3.6% in 2020.

With AFP

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