Road Safety: Cameroon wins two awards in Morocco

 The Republic of Cameroon has grabbed two outstanding awards at this year’s edition of the Second, the Kofi Annan Road Safety Award, which took place in Morocco,

The award ceremony, organised by the Special Envoy of the Secretary General of the United Nations in charge of road safety, the World Bank, and the Economic Commission for Africa, ran from September 25 to 26, 2023.

The first award was in the category of best practices in Africa in the field of “the use of artificial intelligence in the fight against road accidents” through the Ym@ne driver system, which is a monitoring system and travel management thanks to cameras installed in intercity public transport buses and oil trucks set up by the Minister of Transport Jean Ernest Masséna.

 The second award was a prize for the participation of civil society in awareness-raising and communication on road safety awarded to the SECUROUTE association, a member of the platform of NGOs and associations promoting road safety under the supervision of the Transport Minister.

At the ceremony, Cameroon’s Transport Minister dedicated the two awards to the president of the Republic, Paul Biya, for his, “unfailing commitment to the promotion of road safety in Cameroon,” he said.

Jean Ernest Masséna equally expressed his compassion vis-à-vis the Moroccan people following the earthquake that cost the lives of thousands of civilians and equally led to huge destruction.

However, Cameroon is currently ranked 18th in the world by the World Population Review, with a death rate of 27.60 per 100,000. Some experts feel that these records do not represent the actual situation in Cameroon, as many road accidents go unreported.

“I have never seen anything like it,” a concerned Cameroonian told MMI a few months ago, adding, “There have been accidents every day, and the death toll is mounting.”

Just this year, at least four renowned Cameroonian comedians lost their lives in ghastly road accidents. Comedian Cabrel Nanjip lost his life while driving to Yaoundé in his newly acquired blue car.

Many have attributed the skyrocketing increase in road accidents to the poor state of Cameroonian roads. They keep calling on the government to improve the roads in order to reduce the mortality rate in Cameroon.