Cape Town - Cameroon President Paul Biya has been criticised for his public absence as the country grapples with the Covid-19 global pandemic crisis.
Biya, 87, has yet to address the nation a month after the country’s first case of Covid-19 was recorded.
On Monday, Cameroon had recorded 658 cases, with nine deaths, making it the one of the most-affected countries in Africa.
According to public health Minister Manaouda Malachie social media post, the country had recorded 43 patients cured from Covid-19, 11 at the Douala Laquintinie Hospital, 17 at the Yaounde General Hospital, nine at the Jamot Hospital and six at the Yaounde Central Hospital.
Other patients are currently being monitored and may be declared healed following a negative result to the test, the minister said.
In his 37 years in power, Cameroonians have become accustomed to Biya's long absences, mainly because of poor health, but his silence over the pandemic is raising sharp questions, international news agency AFP reported.
He posed for the cameras after talks with the US ambassador on 11 March, but did not speak to the press.
Six days later Biya urged Cameroonians on Facebook to “respect” measures taken to combat the virus, but since then there has not been so much as a whisper from a leader who has overseen many crises since he took power in 1982.
On Friday, opposition leader Maurice Kamto demanded that the president address the nation within seven days, otherwise “the people will inevitably see his failure”.
Biya's silence “is becoming criminal”, he said.
Labour Minister Gregoire Owona snapped back, saying Kamto wished to politicise the crisis, calling it “shameful”. Thus far Minister Manaouda has been the point man for the coronavirus crisis, tweeting out frequent updates and detailing the government's response.
But criticism has grown louder with the rise in known cases from 142 to 658 in a week. Prime Minister Joseph Dion Ngute on March 13 announced measures such as closing borders and a ban on rallies, which have been extended.
The one new step since then, attributed to Biya but announced by Ngute, has been the creation of a solidarity fund worth 1 billion CFA francs.