YAOUNDE – The Africa Cup of Nations in January and February is a “beacon of hope” for a Cameroonian economy battered by the coronavirus pandemic and two conflicts, businessmen and traders say.
A sign of depressing times is that only a few merchants populate the once crowded aisles of a handicraft market in coastal city Douala, the economic hub of the central Africa country.
“We first had the Boko Haram crisis in the far north, then the separatist conflict in the English-speaking zone. Covid-19 has finished us,” says Mouhamadou Isolha, president of the Douala craft market.
“We had very complicated months. No more visitors came. We are experiencing something unheard of,” he continues.
“The CAN (Cup of…
