CI-NEWS

Cameroonians stranded at Jomo Kenyatta Airport as government shuts borders to limit corona virus spr

2020-03-23

No: 478

Cameroonians stranded at Jomo Kenyatta Airport as government shuts borders to limit corona virus spread.

As the number of confirmed cases of coronavirus in Cameroon rose to 27 at the weekend, the government tightened restrictions on those entering the country.

Given that majority of the patients came onboard international flights from countries hardest-hit by the virus, the government is banning passengers and aircraft from entering the country.

This has left scores of its citizens who left Dubai on Tuesday stranded in Kenya.

Some of them who are now frustrated amid high risk of contracting the disease, have cried out, citing terrible living conditions as they are held back from entering the country.

Expressing her frustration, a Cameroonian who has been at the Jomo Kenyatta Airport said they have not received any help from both the government of Cameroon and Kenya Airways, as their plane was barred from landing at the Douala Airport.

“Our government has categorically refused us from landing in Cameroon. We have been in Kenya for the past four days and have not been able to go to where we were going to, and not even been able to go back to Cameroon,” one of the passengers onboard Kenya Airways said on Saturday.

“Many of us here have not had our baths for the past four days, some are bleeding and we have not been able to have access to our luggage. It is really a pity that our country, our government can abandon us in this kind of a situation”, she told Mimi Mefo Info in tears.

Though they were in the same situation with Nigerians, Congolese, and Ivorians, Cameroonians are the only nationality left stranded.

“The Kenyan guys say it is a political issue … We have called the Cameroon ambassador here in Kenya and she has not picked up her phone.

From what the captain told us, they called the transport office in Cameroon and they refused to pick up the phone”, she added, stating that “we are sleeping at the airport on the floors like refugees.”

The Cameroonians have since called on authorities to look into their problems, providing a solution for them. Government is yet to make a statement on the issue.

On March 17 Prime Minister Dion Ngute announced some 13 measures by Cameroon to prevent the further spread of the corona virus.

Among these measures was the sealing of all land, sea and air borders to human travellers. Travellers that had flown into the country at the time were quarantined in hotels and tested.

Source : Mimi Mefo Info

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Cameroonians stranded at Jomo Kenyatta Airport as government shuts borders to limit corona virus spr