“Do not forget that we Cameroonians are the men of the last minute”, laughs Simon Atangana, a former international footballer and now a member of the Collective of former Indomitable Lions.
This association installs one of the “fan-zones” of the capital Yaoundé for the African Cup of Nations (CAN) football which opens Sunday in Cameroon following a postponement in 2021, due to Covid, to a period where the country was not ready.
Restaurants, several giant screens, shops and more than 15,000 people expected on the days of the national team … But four days before the start of the competition, the space is still empty.
“Of course everything will be ready! This CAN will be a huge celebration and this image will be engraved all over the world”, assures Mr. Atangana.
The temperature is slowly rising in Yaoundé and the flagship competition of the African continent is starting to be on everyone’s lips. Fifty-two matches are scheduled between January 9 and February 6. The opening match will pit Cameroon once morest Burkina Faso.
– Health restrictions –
Carrefour Warda, in the city center, sellers of swimsuits and vuvuzelas accost passers-by and sound their instruments in the middle of a concert of horns.
“Do you want a flag? A hat?”, Says Arnaud Medja, 29, to the passenger of a car, dressed from head to toe in green, yellow and red, the national colors.
“Business is not going as I want yet, but I have confidence. It just takes longer than expected. It is the rules on the Covid that have come to slow down the enthusiasm,” he told AFP .
The African Football Confederation has established a very strict protocol to go to the stadiums and avoid an explosion of cases linked to the emergence of the Omicron variant: have a negative PCR test of less than 72 hours, respect a filling gauge at 60 % (climbed to 80% when the Indomitable Lions play) and have a full cycle of vaccination in a country where only 6% of the population over the age of 18 is vaccinated, according to the latest figures from the Minister of Health.
Many selections engaged in the competition, such as Senegal, Gambia and even Cameroon, are already affected by the virus within their workforce.
“Of course I will go to the stadium!” Says Abdoulay, who sells water in the central market in Yaoundé. “Do we have to be vaccinated? Then I will not go,” he recovered quickly.
“The corona, there is not that in Cameroon. And the vaccine, we do not want it here. We do not know what is in it, and the vaccinated still catch the disease”, assures- he does.
In the market, hundreds of Cameroonians crowd around the stalls of the merchants. Not one wears the mask. Music of all kinds, Cameroonian and international, comes out of the speakers in a deafening din.
– “The atmosphere will be there” –
“This CAN, it will be joy. The party. Since the Covid started almost two years ago, Cameroon was calm. Today, we just enjoy the pleasure of seeing the city moving and everyone come out, ”says Laurentine, a 33-year-old cosmetics saleswoman.
The trophy and the mascot roam the city of Yaoundé, accompanied by dancers and musicians and surrounded by dozens of bikers who carry the standards of all the teams qualified for the competition.
In the north of Yaoundé, the excitement is also gaining in Olembé, site of the new stadium with a total capacity of 60,000 seats, and whose delay in work and costs have been creating controversy for months.
A few dozen volunteers are preparing the opening ceremony in one of the large car parks adjacent to the stadium. But behind the enclosure, workers are still cleaning the surroundings still under construction and installing signs. Some road works are also continuing before the start of the competition.
On Wednesday, a few dozen people were waiting in the early followingnoon for the opening of ticket sales points, which CAF announced the day before. But since then, the counters have remained closed.
“I waited all day yesterday. I went to the town hall, to the Ahidjo stadium (one of the other places of the competition, editor’s note) and I am now in front of the Sports Palace. But still nothing. I want to see the opening match at all costs “, explains Karine Sunshine, 23 years old.
“We have been waiting for this moment for 50 years, since the last CAN organized in Cameroon, so I got vaccinated and I will wait a little longer because the Cameroonians will win the trophy. This weekend, the atmosphere will be there, “she predicts.
.