The 33rd edition of the African Cup of Nations (CAN) will open on Sunday January 9 in Cameroon and will run until February 6. The opening ceremony will take place in the new Yaoundé stadium, which can accommodate 60,000 people, with Cameroon-Burkina Faso as the first poster. Already postponed by a year, the sporting event – the holding of which remained uncertain until Christmas – is paying the price for the health and security context in the country.
Drastic health measures
All supporters must be fully vaccinated against Covid-19 and present a negative PCR test of less than 72 hours or an antigen test of less than 24 hours in order to be able to attend the matches. The Omicron variant wave, which originated in South Africa, is a huge health challenge for the organizers because this sporting event attracts a large audience from all over the continent. The cities where the matches take place should not turn into clusters. A phenomenon is already worrying the Cameroonian authorities: the proliferation of false tests and false vaccination certificates. Controls must be reinforced for spectators.
Significant security threats
Security threats also weigh on the region. They come first from the English-speaking regions in the south-west and north-west of Cameroon. For four years, separatist groups have led a guerrilla war against the central power. The violence has already left 3,500 dead and 700,000 displaced, according to the UN.
For this CAN 2022, some armed groups have promised to disrupt the competition and sent threatening letters to the teams of group F, that is to say Tunisia, Mali, Mauritania and The Gambia, who will play their matches. in the town of Limbé, a seaside resort in the southwest of the country. The government has already deployed heavily armed soldiers on site and is carrying out checks and searches in all parts of the city.
The other security threat comes from northern Cameroon. Even if no match will take place in this region, the threat of Boko Haram jihadists is taken very seriously by the authorities. Admittedly, Boko Haram leader Aboubakar Shekau died last May, weakening the movement, but another rival group, the Islamic State in West Africa, has consolidated its territory around Lake Chad and leads sporadic incursions into Cameroon. The Cameroonian security forces are therefore on the alert. No question for them to lower their guard at the time of the CAN, a huge sounding board for the entire African continent.