Cameroon’s 87-year-old President Paul Biya has made a televised address to his people ending more than two months of silence as the central African nation dealt with a burgeoning coronavirus crisis.
Biya’s long silence was for supporters a sign of gravitas but for critics one of failure.
“Like most countries in the world Cameroon is suffering from COVID-19,” Biya said Tuesday night on state channel CRTV.
Biya urged people to respect “measures taken by the government, such as the obligatory wearing of masks”.
He last spoke to the nation on March 5, although Cameroon had counted by Monday 3,500 cases including 140 deaths, and has been hit harder by the virus than most sub-Saharan African countries.
