2024-05-09 21:45:21
Repeated power cuts from ENEO, the national electricity supplier, no longer spare anyone. Not even diplomatic representations. The German Embassy in Yaoundé has just paid the price, forced to close its visa service indefinitely due to a power outage. A grotesque situation which says a lot about the prevailing mismanagement.
The German Embassy, new collateral victim of ENEO’s failures
It was an announcement that had the effect of a bomb in the Cameroonian capital. In a laconic press release relayed by 237online.com, the German Embassy in Yaoundé announced the closure for an indefinite period of its visa service. The cause: a technical power supply problem which paralyzes the operation of this essential link in German representation.
An unprecedented and incredible situation, which adds to the already long list of victims of the failures of ENEO, the national electricity supplier hated by Cameroonians. After households, businesses, and businesses, it is diplomacy’s turn to toast. A snub for the Yaoundé regime, incapable of providing a service as basic as the supply of electricity, including to its distinguished guests.
H2: Hundreds of visa applicants in impasse and disarray
But the first to pay the high price of this diplomatic-energy hiccup are the users. The hundreds of Cameroonians who had submitted visa applications for Germany today find themselves in impasse and total disarray. Students, businessmen, tourists, sick people seeking care… All see their projects and their hopes brutally suspended by the vagaries of power cuts.
« I had an appointment this week to submit my student visa application. I prepared everything, paid the fees, booked my plane ticket. And there, I am told that the service is closed until further notice. It’s a nightmare, I don’t know what to do anymore“, laments Hervé T., 24, who was to join a prestigious German university in September. Like him, there are dozens of them languishing in front of the closed gates of the embassy, looking for information and solutions. In vain.
The government ordered to “ neutralize » LOCATION, la colère gronde
Faced with this grotesque situation, anger is brewing in public opinion. On social networks, calls are increasing to demand that the government finally take responsibility in the face of ENEO’s chronic failures. “ ENEO ultimately in addition to harming the Cameroonian populations is already starting to harm diplomatic representations. When will the government take its responsibilities to neutralize the ENEO company? »protests a user on Twitter.
A cry from the heart which sums up the fed up of Cameroonians with an electricity supplier perceived as a “ State within State“, who seems to care nothing about the consequences of his repeated failures. Wild power cuts, astronomical bills, customer service for absent subscribers… There is no shortage of grievances against ENEO, whose concession contract expires in 2031. Until then, many are calling for sanctions, or even an early termination.
When contacted, neither ENEO nor the Ministry of Water and Energy deigned to react to this umpteenth scandal. Radio silence also from the government side, visibly more concerned by its internal quarrels than by the ordeal of its fellow citizens. Meanwhile, at the German Embassy, people are working to find emergency solutions. Generators, solar panels… Everything is good so as not to subject Cameroonian users to a double punishment which has lasted too long. But the damage is done. And the image of Cameroon, once again, lastingly damaged.