Cameroon Dialysis Patients Protest Poor Treatment, Equipment Shortage  

YAOUNDÉ - Scores of Cameroonians with kidney failure and their relatives have blocked traffic since Monday around a Yaoundé hospital to protest a shortage of dialysis treatment.  Cameroon authorities blame administrative procedures and coronavirus disruptions for slowing the import of dialysis machines and medicines.  

Traffic was at a standstill in Yaounde’s Melen neighborhood this week as hundreds of patients with kidney failure, and their relatives, protested a halt to treatment at the Yaoundé University Teaching Hospital.  Among the kidney patients who sat or lay on the road in front of the hospital is 54-year-old Emmanuel Pierre Essi.  He says their protest began on Monday after at least seven kidney patients died within three weeks due to lack of treatment.