The epidemic linked to the new coronavirus is progressing in Africa. This Sunday, Rwanda was completely cordoned off and its population confined, measures among the most drastic taken in the sub-Saharan part of the continent, a region of the world with fragile health systems where the number of infections continues to climb, as feared the World Health Organization in recent days.
Uganda and Eritrea have joined the list of African countries that announced their first confirmed cases of Covid-19 this weekend. And Tanzania, Ethiopia, Mauritius and Kenya have reported additional cases. In all, more than a thousand cases of infection have been recorded in sub-Saharan Africa.
From Burkina Faso, in West Africa, to Mauritius, off the east coast, governments have banned public gatherings and closed schools, churches, mosques, restaurants, bars and airports.
Mauritius confined
Uganda has also decided Saturday night to close its borders. On Mauritius, some 1,800 km off the east coast of Africa, no one was driving the streets of the capital, Port Louis, on Sunday. The 1.3 million inhabitants of Mauritius, which has recorded one death and 17 confirmed cases, must remain confined to their homes since Friday.
After the discovery of a new case, the fourth in total, Congo-Brazzaville also announced "the immediate closure and until further notice of all borders". Angola, which reported its first two cases on Saturday, closed its own with the DRC.
Côte d'Ivoire and Burkina Faso , which recorded the first coronavirus-related death in sub-Saharan Africa on Wednesday, were also set to close their borders as of this weekend. In Burkina, a Sahelian country of 20 million inhabitants, a curfew was introduced from 7 p.m. to 5 a.m.
Nigeria , the most populous country in Africa with 200 million inhabitants, greatly tightened its measures on Saturday against the pandemic, in particular by imposing the partial closure of public places and two international airports. Lagos, a megalopolis of 20 million inhabitants with an extremely dense population, had already adopted strict protection measures, by ordering the closure of all bars, restaurants, night clubs on Friday evening, with "immediate effect".
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The government of Senegal , where nearly 60 cases have been listed, also wanted to be firm on Saturday, dismissing "all tolerance" regarding the ban on rallies. The governor of Dakar closed mosques in the region on Thursday, but collective prayers were held there on Friday.
In Zimbabwe , a southern African country on its knees after two decades of economic crisis, President Emmerson Mnangagwa this week declared a national disaster and announced the closure of schools. Gatherings of more than 100 people are prohibited.
North Africa also affected
The virus is also spreading in North Africa. In Algeria , the TSA media reports two deaths and 62 additional cases confirmed in the space of 24 hours, for a report which now amounts to 17 deaths and 201 cases identified. For the first time in more than a year, the streets of Algiers were empty on Friday. Covid-19 got the better of the weekly marches of the Hirak protest movement.
With 75 cases of contamination and three deaths recorded Sunday, Tunisia announced the general containment of the population. In videos shared on social networks, muezzins cry while inviting the faithful to pray from home, instead of inviting them, as usual, to join the mosque.