COVID-19, Humanitarian Aid : Canada Offers 4 Billion FCFA To Cameroon

The Minister of External Relations, Lejeune Mbella Mbella, on Tuesday, June 9, 2020, held discussions with the Canadian High Commissioner to Cameroon, Richard Bale. Talking to the media after, the High Commissioner said his visit was a follow-up to a recent phone call to Minister Mbella Mbella by the Canadian Minister for International Development.
He said he came to explain in more detail the support Canada is providing to Cameroon this year for humanitarian assistance worth 5 million Canadian dollars (2.15 billion FCFA). The money is being used in the Far North, East, North West and South West Regions, he said. Concerning the fight against the Coronavirus pandemic or COVID-19, the High Commissioner disclosed that his country was providing another 2.15 billion FCFA.
This financing is being channeled through local and international charities, and United Nations agencies. Richard Bale said his High Commission was proud of the assistance offered to the United Nations Children’s Fund, UNICEF, for the resumption of classes on June 1, 2020 by children who will sit certificate examinations this academic year.
“We are also financing the supply of 2,000 Coronavirus test kits that will soon arrive in the country from the International Atomic Energy Agency, IAEA in Vienna, Austria,” the High Commissioner disclosed. He said having been hit before Cameroon by the Coronavirus pandemic, his government understood the challenges the country was going through. “We have a longstanding relationship with Cameroon. We therefore felt it was necessary to stand by Cameroon’s side during this difficult period,” he underscored.
Commenting on how Cameroon has so far handled the COVID-19 pandemic, His Excellency Richard Bale said it was a good thing for the Ministry of Public Health to decentralise testing. He said his government did same, adding that though the cities of Yaounde, Douala and Bafoussam were for now the hardest hit, the pandemic will inevitably spread to other regions. Thus, the need to decentralise testing.

Par Kimeng Hilton