Foreign nationals packed Senegal’s Blaise Diagne airport on Friday evening to board the last international flights out before their total suspension to slow down the spread of coronavirus. On Friday, 47 people in Senegal had tested positive for COVID-19.
Some of the passengers rushing home said they felt safer in Senegal and not looking forward to lockdown situations at home where the number of confirmed cases was much higher.
In the video below, Senegal confirms its first case of COVID-19.
Air France has added five flights to help repatriate French nationals.
Some passengers bound for Paris were diverted to Bordeaux and unhappy to have to find their own way back once in the country. Some United States nationals were being chartered back home on board special flights laid on to repatriate them home.
One French passenger Jean Rene Bourdon from Britany in France, who was stuck in Senegal for an extra two days, said he would rather be there than back in France to face total lockdown.
One American passenger working for Peace Corp, said he felt safer in Senegal than in the US.
Air France said on Thursday that it was working closely with the French government to help repatriate French and European nationals abroad who might be stranded as a result of transport link closures prompted by the coronavirus.
In the video below, France’s Ambassador to South Africa, Aurélien Lechevallier discusses President Emmanuel Macron decision to close external borders to travellers.
France said they had 130 000 nationals they wanted to bring back on French territory.
Meanwhile, Angola’s health ministry on Saturday confirmed its first two cases of coronavirus.
“Today we received results confirming two cases of patients infected with COVID-19,” health minister Silvia Lutucuta said at a briefing on national broadcaster TPA.
