People wear cloth face masks to protect themselves against the COVID-19 in Yaounde, Cameroon on April 9, 2020. Recently, the wearing of a protective mask has become mandatory for all Cameroonians wishing to approach certain hospitals and public services, like the General Hospital of Yaounde, and government bodies in the country's southwest region. (Photo by Jean Pierre Kepseu/Xinhua)
by Xinhua writer Olatunji Saliu
ABUJA, April 8 (Xinhua) -- Inhabitants of Kipsongo, Matisi, and Jamanulu shanty villages in Kenya are at risk of hunger as they lack activities to engage in order to earn income after the government imposed some regulations to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus.
"I earned my living by cleaning the hotels but the business is not working after the government ordered them to close to tame the spread of the pandemic. I'm going hungry because there is no work for me to engage in and get money," said Jimmy Barasa, a slum dweller.
Several countries have been on lockdown as Africa continues to see an upsurge in the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases amid an all-out and unprecedented efforts to contain the spread of the pandemic within the continent.
The world's second-most populous continent has reported 10,692 confirmed cases of the coronavirus with 535 deaths as of Wednesday, across 52 out of 54 African countries, according to the Africa Center for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC).
"COVID-19 has the potential not only to cause thousands of deaths but to also unleash economic and social devastation," Matshido Moeti, the WHO regional director for Africa, said in a statement. "Its spread beyond major cities means the opening of a new front in our fight against this virus."
Mainly confined to some major cities initially, recent data by the WHO and Africa CDC show the confirmed COVID-19 cases have now spread to the nooks and crannies of Africa.
"With poor medical facilities and insufficient medical personnel, it is very difficult for African countries to reduce the morbility and mortality rates of COVID-19 , " said Wang Xiaochun, senior advisor of disease control with the Africa CDC.
"They should do their utmost to prevent the spreading and strictly implement the measures they already had," said Wang.
UNPRECENTED EFFORTS TO COMBAT PANDEMIC
Looking at the situation broadly, the majority of African countries are on high alert in regard to responding to the pandemic.
Ghana, one of the worst hit countries in sub-Saharan Africa, has taken a raft of drastic measures to battle the COVID-19 pandemic, including a prolonged border closure and lockdown in its major cities.
Once bustling streets in Accra, the Ghanaian capital, are now quiet amid the ongoing lockdown, during which residents are strictly required to stay at home and leaving local sanitation workers walking around with their disinfection tools.
A series of barrier measures have also been put in place by the Cameroonian government since mid-March. These include the closing of borders, isolation of people at high risk, the restriction of mass gatherings and movement.
Recently, the wearing of a protective mask has become mandatory for all Cameroonians wishing to approach certain hospitals and public services, like the General Hospital of Yaounde, and government bodies in the country's southwest region.
Nigeria, Africa's most populous country, had also followed the trend, locking down its main cities, Abuja and Lagos, its industrial hub.
The largest economy in Africa also shut down its airports for foreign and domestic flights, as well as railway services across the country.
"We are fully aware that such measures will cause much hardship and inconvenience to many citizens," Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari said while announcing the lockdown on March 29.
"But this is a matter of life and death; if we look at the dreadful daily toll of deaths in Italy, France, and Spain," Buhari said, calling on all Nigerians to see all the measures as a national and patriotic duty to control and contain the spread of this virus.
In many parts of Africa, people are encouraged to work from home to further curb infections.
The WHO said it is working with governments across Africa to scale up their capacities in critical response areas such as coordination, surveillance, testing, isolation, case management, contact tracing, infection prevention and control, risk communication and community engagement, and laboratory capacity.
ECONOMIC, SOCIAL IMPACTS
Due to the social distancing requirements, residents of informal settlements across Africa that often serve as domestic workers, cannot access their workspaces for fear of spreading the virus by the employers. This, has, no doubt, hurt the economic wellbeing of the affected families, now seeking government intervention.
The impact of the COVID-19 on economic, financial and human levels in Africa is "indisputable", Mamadou Fall, a Senegalese academic and historian, told Xinhua.
Speaking of Senegal as an example, Fall said a loss of 2 to 3 percentage points of the gross domestic product (GDP) is expected, which is a huge loss for a country in Africa.
Closing borders in West and Central Africa amid the COVID-19 crisis "can have a catastrophic impact on families living on frontier trades," Florence Kim, a spokesperson of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in West and Central Africa, told Xinhua.
The region is characterized by cross-border economic activities. People cross the border sometimes several times a day to go to sell and buy.
"Closing borders can have a devastating effect on these families who make a living from this activity," Kim said.
With the negative impact on key sectors of the economy such as tourism, travel, exports; with falling commodity prices, declining governments' resources to finance public investment, it would be quasi impossible for Africa to achieve the optimistic forecast of growth rates in 2020, the AU said in a new report published earlier this week.
No doubt, the COVID-19 pandemic has affected the socio-economic condition of "almost all African countries" and appears to worsen dramatically as the tourism, air transport, and the oil industry sectors are visibly impacted.
The disruption of the world economy through global value chains, the abrupt falls in commodity prices and fiscal revenues and the enforcement of travel and social restrictions in many African countries are the main causes of the negative growth.
The AU also projected exports and imports of African countries to drop by at least 35 percent from the level reached in 2019, in which the loss in value is estimated at around 270 billion U.S. dollars.
INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION KEY TO OVERCOME CRISIS
African countries stand a better chance of containing COVID-19 if they work together.
"As the experience of the European Union has revealed, the strength of the responses rests with the weakest links in the member states. There is admirable progress made by the AU member states on communication and cooperation on COVID-19 preparedness and response under the auspices of Africa CDC," said Kenyan Cavince Adhere, an international relations researcher with a focus on China-Africa relations
Apart from global and regional organizations, countries like China are also offering assistance to Africa.
While still fighting against COVID-19 at home, China is supporting and helping African countries and regional organizations to the best of its ability, winning appreciation from across the continent.
China has delivered a batch of testing reagents to African countries via Africa CDC and emergency supplies to countries affected, with Chinese medical teams also helping fight the epidemic on the continent.
On Tuesday, China's medical supplies for Nigeria and 17 other African countries arrived in Accra and are scheduled to be delivered to the other countries within a few days.
Meanwhile, Chinese companies and civil organizations also provided urgently needed supplies to African countries.
Jack Ma, co-founder and former executive chairman of Alibaba Group, recently donated through his foundation a total of 1.1 million testing kits, 6 million masks and 60,000 protective suits and face shields, among others, to 54 countries in Africa to help the continent fight the epidemic.
African governments through the African Union and the WHO are already engaging each other and sharing ideas of how to deal with the problem
"Pooling resources and funding to fight COVID-19, coordination, and cooperation in the minimization of the socio-economic impacts of the pandemic, and putting in place inclusive and sustainable measures that would speed up recovery of their economies in each and every sector," said Eric Mangunyi, a senior consultant at the Em-Pioneer Consultancy firm in Nairobi.
