BriefingAfrica

Can Burkina Faso’s Haphazard Response Contain COVID-19?

A woman wearing a face mask holds her child at a marketplace in the Nioko-2 suburb of Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, May 14, 2020 (photo courtesy of Clair MacDougall).
A woman wearing a face mask holds her child at a marketplace in the Nioko-2 suburb of Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, May 14, 2020 (photo courtesy of Clair MacDougall).
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OUAGADOUGOU, Burkina Faso—Residents in the capital of this small, West African country rejoiced last weekend as their beloved corner bars, known as maquis, reopened seven weeks after the government had ordered them closed to curb the spread of COVID-19. In a maquis in the suburb of Wemtenga on Sunday evening, beer bottles clinked and chairs sidled closer together as patrons smoked and swayed to Ivorian music under drops of colored light pouring from a plastic disco ball. That same day, authorities had called on citizens to respect an earlier government order to wear masks—an edict that many Burkinabe, including those […]

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