Apart from security issues plaguing Cameroon’s English-speaking southwestern region, of late it has been reeling under a cholera epidemic.
Speaking to Anadolu Agency, Albert Ze, a researcher in health economics, said that the Anglophone regions of Bamenda and Buea are suffering from severe health issues.
Since 2017, the Central African country of Cameroon has been engulfed by a deadly conflict rooted in the colonization by both the French and British governments – and the two languages that came with it, French and English.
In a conflict known as the “Anglophone crisis”, the military is currently battling separatist forces in the two English-speaking regions in the country’s northwest and southwest.
On the disease front, Health Minister Manaouda Malachie said that so far 4,627 cholera cases with 105 deaths have been reported in the country.
“Cholera is a very visible consequence. Even the spread of COVID-19 was accentuated. It is a shocking situation in a disrupted state like ours. Cameroon should review its national health policy in case of a crisis,” he said.
“There has been no water and light for a week now. We are suffering in Buea city for now,” Louise Edjeme, a resident of the southwest regional capital, told Anadolu Agency.
Bernard Okalia Bilai, the regional governor, blames cholera in Buea and other southwestern cities on the lack of clean water caused by the long dry season.
“The quality of water consumed and the level of hygiene are the factors that have favored this disturbing resurgence of cholera in the country. The populations are once again called to vigilance,” Malachie told Anadolu Agency.
Okalia Bilai blamed the disease on the way livestock and some people continue to use waterways for defecation. He launched the first vaccination campaign on April 8, 2022, during which health workers are going door to door to encourage people to take the vaccine. He also instructed that wells be closed.
These activities have helped contain the spread of the epidemic in some districts, according to health authorities.
Fears about tap water
Many people also voiced fears about tap water. Those who could not afford mineral water thought they would be long dead if they had to worry about the water they were drinking.
Quoted by the local press, the Cameroon Water Utilities Corporation (Camwater), the national water supply and sanitation company, defended the “strict control” and quality of its water, saying that areas severely affected by cholera are not covered by its supply network, while “some that are covered are intertwined with other community water networks as in Limbe, Buea, and Tiko,” cities in the English-speaking area.
In Douala, where Hermes Eboko is studying sociology at the University of Douala, he says he frequently sees several days of water cuts at a time, as people from many other cities verify.
Camwater fails to fulfill its responsibilities and is dishonest with the public, he said, which is why people resort to alternatives such as drilling wells, sometimes in unhygienic surroundings.
“The struggle for clean water is relentless and heartbreaking in Cameroon,” said Ntui, referring to populations in the country’s north who have not been spared by cholera, insecurity, and drought.