Cameroon to Begin Vaccinating Civil Servants
Cameroon will begin vaccinating civil servants today with efforts continuing through the end of the month.
Though inoculation is strongly recommended, Minster of Public Service Joseph Le announced that the jab would not be compulsory.
Cameroon, like many African countries, currently suffers from a vaccine shortages, vaccine hesitancy and an underdeveloped public health system. Only about 1% of Cameroonians are fully vaccinated, and Cameroon has recently experienced a spike in COVID cases, bringing further lockdowns. The concomitant economic hardships have combined with longstanding tensions between the anglophone and francophone regions of the country to increase the ongoing civil conflict over anglophone independence.
Though the government vaccination drive is likely to be successful at inoculating scores of civil servants, it will have little short-term effect beyond easing government operations, as a large portion Cameroonians will remain unvaccinated. In the medium term, Yaoundé will almost certainly be forced to continue economically damaging lockdowns while waiting on high income countries to fulfill their vaccine donation promises. This will almost certainly increase sectarian violence between English and French regions, with more and larger atrocities committed by anglophone separatists against civilians viewed as supporting the government for following COVID restrictions.
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