No money to confine the population: Benin

COTONOU: President Patrice Talon announced Sunday that Benin could not enforce public confinement because it lacks the "means of rich countries" who are fighting the COVID-19 pandemic."Rich countries are putting up huge amounts of money and some are even resorting to barely disguised monetary solutions, or printing notes to prevent what would otherwise be unavoidable socio-economic chaos," he said in a televised address.

"Benin (...) does not have such means," Talon said. "If we take measures which starve everybody, they will quickly end up being defied and violated." The president did announce from Monday a 'cordon sanitaire' around eight major urban areas, including the business capital Cotonou where public transport will be halted. But questions have been asked about the lack of protective measures in the West African country where officially just six cases of novel coronavirus have been recorded.