Coronavirus: Africa faces the pandemic on Saturday May 23

Text by: RFI Follow

According to the CDC, the African Union Center for Disease Prevention, the continent recorded 104,279 cases of Covid-19 this Saturday, and 3,185 deaths due to the disease.

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• First death in the Central African Republic

The Central African Republic, which had hitherto managed to pass through the macabre toll of the victims of the coronavirus, recorded its first death. "  The Central African Republic is at a turning point in the Covid-19 epidemic, which is characterized by a rapid increase in the number of imported and autonomous cases  ," the authorities alerted on Monday. This landlocked country in central Africa currently has 552 positive cases and 18 cured, according to the ministry. Nearly 12,000 people have been screened, according to health officials.

# COVID19 DAILY SITUATION REPORT # 26 in #RCA pic.twitter.com/rsJGHJzJYX

The country, ranked among the poorest in the world and ravaged by a civil war since 2013, is particularly ill-equipped to deal with the epidemic of coronavirus. In the absence of sufficient hospital infrastructure, the response is mainly focused on prevention: closure of land and air borders, bars, nightclubs, limitation of crowds ...

Several foreign partners have supported the country in the fight against the coronavirus. At the beginning of May, the European Union thus inaugurated a humanitarian air bridge between France and Bangui to transport equipment and personnel to the NGOs on which the country largely depends. China has also delivered screening equipment, while the United States has donated $ 3 million, mainly for water and sanitation activities.

• In Tunisia, Eid "sacrificed" travelers in compulsory quarantine

As the Muslim world prepares to celebrate the end of Ramadan, thousands of Tunisians who have returned to their country in extremis will spend this holiday far from their families, forced to isolate themselves in quarantine in hotels, in order to fight the spread from Covid-19.

The epidemic has stalled in Tunisia, with few new patients officially identified per week and a total of 47 deaths since the start of the pandemic. The authorities have therefore started to lift the strict containment measures, which were put in place in the first cases in mid-March. However, isolation outside the home remains compulsory for people arriving from abroad, as well as for caregivers in contact with patients with the virus, even if they have not been hospitalized. Among the eleven infected people identified in Tunisia this week, seven were already under quarantine following their arrival from abroad.

• 32,000 Moroccans still stranded abroad

Since the country closed its borders in mid-March in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic, more than 30,000 Moroccans have been stranded around the world. Rabat ensures to prepare their repatriation, without however advancing a date. Faced with the pandemic, the kingdom closed its borders, suspended all flights and declared a health emergency, with strict confinement reinforced by a night curfew.

To be heard, stranded people have multiplied calls for help, with sit-ins and social media campaigns. Some have addressed an open letter to King Mohammed VI. "  Today we are running out of financial resources and our mental health is deteriorating,  " say the signatories.

Listen to this young Moroccan girl stranded in France.
His testimony summarizes the situation of the 22,000 of our compatriots in the same situation:
"We are ready to cooperate with the authorities, pay for screening tests, return flights". # Maroc_nous_a_oublie # COVID19 pic.twitter.com/ljeYViiw4H

The consulates have since set up "support cells" and paid the accommodation costs of 6,500 Moroccans, according to the government. The rest are left to fend for themselves. The office of the Moroccan Association for Human Rights (AMDH) in Paris recently alerted to the "  situation of great vulnerability  " of "the  elderly, suffering from serious illnesses or parents accompanied by young children  ".

So far, only 500 Moroccans stranded in the Spanish enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla have been allowed to cross the border on foot after more than two months of waiting. The first left Melilla, after a Moroccan stranded in the enclave was found dead in the street due to a stroke. Those who return are quarantined for 14 days and tested, according to Moroccan media. Faced with the limited reception capacity of public health, Rabat's priority has been to limit the risk of contagion linked to the return of possible carriers of the virus, according to a Moroccan diplomatic source.

• Laurent Gbagbo sets up a scientific committee for after Covid

It is from Brussels, where he is under conditional residence pending the trial on appeal to the ICC, that Laurent Gbagbo brought together eleven academics and intellectuals from the continent to aim at "  developing the foundations of a new Africanity, capable of driving its own destiny, without turning in on itself  ”, according to the call launched Friday.

Among the members of this committee, the Ivorian professor Georges-Armand Ouegnin, also president of the gbagbist platform Ensemble for democracy and sovereignty. Joined by RFI, he believes that “  this pandemic is an opportunity to think about the aftermath. It is up to us to take control of our destiny. Our work includes good governance on the continent and the development of health for all  . ”

A report of "  350 to 400 pages  " should soon be published for decision-makers and pan-African organizations. It will follow four lines of research: “  strengthening all of our endogenous resilience capacities; the commitment to meet the challenge of defending our collective goods, which are health, training / research, infrastructure, collective security and the consolidation of our political communities; the systematic promotion of self-esteem and solidarity in our Africanity; the desire to break away from our position as a mediocre subsystem of globalization.  "

• In South Africa, 20,000 dead and the economy in free fall

Despite strict containment and coercive measures (ban on the sale of alcohol and cigarettes), South Africa is the country officially most affected by the Covid-19 pandemic on the continent. This Saturday, the symbolic bar of 20,000 dead has been reached and the social situation is becoming increasingly tense within the Rainbow Nation.

While the rand had depreciated by 22.9% since January, the South African currency continues to plunge in a country where inflation is above 3% and, Thursday, the Central Bank lowered its key rate of 50 points to 3.75% while announcing that the national GDP would fall by 7%. A situation that could worsen if the epidemic continues in South Africa.

• Human Rights Watch concerned about the health of an incarcerated Cameroonian political leader

The human rights NGO denounces the conditions of detention of Blaise Sevidzem Berinyuy, separatist leader of Ambazonia known as Shufai, imprisoned in Cameroon since January 2018, as well as the sanitary conditions of prison buildings where the spread of the epidemic is increased.

"  His family and lawyers said he lost consciousness and that his health has deteriorated considerably in the past 10 days. They reported that on May 19, Shufai was handcuffed to his hospital bed overnight, although he is barely in a condition to move,  "the statement said. The NGO believes that "  the transfer of Shufai to an overcrowded prison where the transmission of Covid-19 is likely to increase the risks to his health and his life  ." Cameroon is regularly pinned by the American NGO, especially in its management of the English-speaking crisis

• End of pregnancy "in hell" for a Liberian nurse suffering from coronavirus

The story is told by Agence France-Presse. Five days after being tested on her own initiative, positive income, Sedia Marwolo, a nurse from Monrovia, saw a medical team in protective equipment arrive at her home. Under the gaze of the neighborhood, the 38-year-old caregiver was separated from her family and taken to a unit in a captain's hospital reserved for patients with Covid-19 disease.

"  I was like in hell, alone, abandoned,  " says Sedia Marwolo. "  There was no gynecologist, no midwife, and no equipment to monitor my health  ." Frightened, she did not eat for two days. "  I then realized that my baby was no longer moving in my womb,  " she recalls. The young nurse started eating again and, after 15 days, was declared cured. She was able to leave intensive care and gave birth to a baby girl, who was not infected.

But since returning home, her family has faced the stigma of the neighborhood. "  I no longer feel at home. People stare at us, call our house "la maison corona" or start running when I leave my house,  "says Sedia Marwolo.

With 250 officially confirmed coronavirus cases and 24 dead, Liberia is relatively spared compared to Europe, the United States or South America. But it is one of the countries where the state of the health system is causing concern in the face of the pandemic.

• Concerned footballers in Gabon

With the end of the championship, Gabonese footballers no longer have any income. However, on April 14, the Ministry of Sports had promised exceptional assistance 72 million CFA francs for the 720 Gabonese players. Or an income of 100,000 francs for two months. But since then, nothing. "  We are not going to die from coronavirus but from hunger,  " explained a player at the microphone of RFI this Saturday afternoon. Especially since on April 24, Fifa had announced unlocking 150 million euros for all of the 211 federations that make it up.

Our selection on the coronavirus

• Listen to our Coronavirus Info column 

• Our  explanations  :
→  What we know about the mode of contagion
→  Disparities and inequalities in the face of the coronavirus: what must be remembered
→  Triple therapy, Discovery… update on research
→  The race for the vaccine is in full swing
→  How to make a mask and use it well

• Our series  :
→ “  The response, country by country  ”
→ “  Nurses  ' words ”

• After Covid-19, towards a new world?

• Each evening, find the State of the world and Africa facing the pandemic

• See also the files of RFI Savoirs on the Covid-19:
→  Birth of a pandemic
→  Everyday life put to the test
→  The history of epidemics
→  Science facing the Covid-19
→  The geopolitical consequences

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