Claims
An image shared several hundred times in Cameroon since March 17 is used to denounce the accommodation conditions of passengers who have recently arrived in the country and placed in quarantine due to the coronavirus. But this photo has been around since 2017 on a Tripadvisor site publication about accommodation in South Africa.
In this post, shared more than 600 times on Facebook since its publication on March 17, a passenger arriving by plane at the Nsimalen airport in Yaoundé, the capital of Cameroon, is supposed to recount his conned woes to the author of the post.
“I arrived today at nsimalen international airport from Paris […] You yourself are looking at the hotel of the cockroaches where the people there have quarantined us, even to breathe it is quite a problem combat, the heat is like in the oven, ”he explains.
The alleged traveler also mentions “the water that does not come out” from the tap, the light that “has just been turned off” and “the noise of motorcycles at the bottom of the window”.
As of March 20, Cameroon had 21 detected cases of contamination with the new coronavirus, according to figures communicated by the Ministry of Health.
Three days earlier, on March 17, authorities had decreed the closure of air, sea and land borders, and hundreds of airline passengers were quarantined, accommodated in hotels in Yaoundé and Douala.
Among them were passengers on an Air France flight, three of whom had tested positive for the coronavirus.
The image of this room with Spartan comfort and the story that accompanies it, relayed in particular on Facebook and in an online article, aroused the hilarity of Internet users.
But this cliché has nothing to do with the accommodation conditions of passengers quarantined in Cameroon.
Verdict: No, this room is not that of a traveler quarantined in Cameroon because of the coronavirus
By doing a reverse image search on the Yandex images search engine, this photo can be found on the Tripadvisor website, a platform that lists advice and opinions on tourist sites, hotels, restaurants, etc.
It appears in a photo gallery which compiles the opinions of tourists who have stayed in a hostel (“backpackers hostel”) in South Africa.
It illustrates a negative opinion published in February 2017 by an Internet user. He describes “the worst experience of (his) life”, in this room with a “fan that doesn’t work” and “dirty sheets”. “I won’t let my dog sleep in there!” He concludes.
A man named Patrick M., who identifies himself as the owner of the hostel, replied on the website: “After you we inspected this room and it was not as bad as you described it. admittedly, a little bit of attention that we have definitely taken care of since then “.
We were unable to make contact with this tourist. However, we can assume that this image was not taken in a room reserved for a passenger quarantined in Cameroon due to the new coronavirus.