Cameroon: Cutting internet from a whole region was the wrong approach

Many Cameroonians of the French expression have expressed concerns over the internet blackout that has characterized the two Anglophone regions for over 80 days today saying the government used a primitive and naïve approach to the problem. They say there were more succinct approaches the government could have used to resolve the issue of spreading false rumours over the social media.

Martin Evariste Belinga, a final student at the national school of Post and Telecommunications in Yaounde suggested to Cameroon Concord what the government should have done instead. 

 “I feel very concerned because the consequences of not having internet are very serious on our economy. The government took into consideration only the political side whereby there is this possibility of spreading false information through the social media and causing panic among the population. To me there should have been another way of handling that for example, it is very possible to block whatsapp, Facebook and other social media, without taking away internet as a whole” says Martin.

Critics on their part are unable to reconcile the fact the government is calling on school resumption without first of all reinstating internet connection.

“You are calling for schools to resume yet you have not reinstated internet connection. You don’t expect students of the NW and SW of the country to do any meaningful research without the internet” yells an angry critic.