Reopening of borders: SW prepares effective implementation

Putting the measure into practice will involve the Ministries of Health, Transport as well as Security and Territorial Administration.

Authorities of Territorial Administration and Decentralisation, Transport and Public Health in the South West Region are preparing to ensure strict implementation of the joint communiqué issued last 30 October by the Ministers of Transport and Public Health re-establishing air and maritime liaison between Cameroon and Nigeria. The measure followed the World Health Organisation (WHO)’s affirmation that Nigeria was henceforth free of the Ebola disease.

The South West Governor’s Office has been contacting the command personnel on the field in the Region to identify and establish an inventory of all possible outlets and inlets between Cameroon and Nigeria so as to constitute joint teams to man such porous routes and quickly implement the measure as instructed by government.

Governor Okalia Bilai Bernard told Cameroon Tribune in an interview last week that vigilance and surveillance remain the watchword and that many other diseases were equally to be checked and monitored during trans-border movements.

The major entry and outing points in the South West are found in four of its six administrative Divisions notably Fako, Ndian, Meme and Manyu. In Fako Division, Tiko, Limbe, and Idenau constitute traditional entry and exit maritime ports to Nigeria.

Meme Division is famous with the Mbonge maritime port. Meanwhile eight of Ndian’s nine Sub-divisions have outlets to Nigeria. Ekok and most of Akwaya are direct border areas that Manyu Division shares with Nigeria.

When Cameroon Tribune contacted the South West Regional Delegate of Transport, Ivo Vevanje, in his Buea office on November 3, 2014, he explained that he was just from the field to work out implementation measures with his collaborators so that the application of government’s communiqué does not suffer any hitch.

He underscored that the measure excludes the transportation of passengers. Meanwhile, the commander of the Ports in Limbe, Mr. Molongu, was holding a meeting for practical modalities with his collaborators that the same morning. Mr. Ndjel Constant, Sub-Maritime District Head for Tiko, told Cameroon Tribune that a programme of departures to Nigeria by ship was being drawn up in such a way that in-coming or outgoing cargo is announced.

It should be noted that numerous clandestine points of entry exist in the mentioned Divisions and such will constitute the task of the administration to map out, man them and exercise checks and surveillance with emphasis on communicable diseases.