On March 8th, while the world was celebrating International Women’s Day, images and videos of a naked woman parading the streets of Yaounde, Capital city of Cameroon flooded the social media space.
The family of the victim has come out to condemn those who chose to share her nudity rather than step in to help.
“The saddest thing is that instead of helping her, her misfortune turned into a spectacle, and the first people to begin filming were women who turned into great reporters to expose her nudity and post on social networks, while a piece of cloth would have sufficed to protect her,” said the uncle of the girl.
The girl, known as Anne Sophie, was seen stark naked on the streets of Mendong, a neighborhood in Yaounde, in the Center region of Cameroon.
It has now been revealed that she is suffering from mental illness.
This revelation, coming from the family, contradicts information that circulated on social media, insinuating that Sophie was accomplishing some sort of occultic condition.
According to her uncle, “Anne Sophie, unfortunately, had a lot of discomforts this morning, having had no one at her side to help her on March 08, 2023.”
He went ahead to appreciate the bike rider who brought her back to her family amidst the sad circumstances.
Mental health is a common condition affecting a large number of Cameroonians, according to official reports from healthcare experts.
According to the World Health Organization, growing social and economic disparities, lengthy wars, violence, and public health emergencies continue to have a negative impact on mental health both in Cameroon and globally.
In 2021, for example, a startling 84 million individuals were forcefully relocated globally, according to the U.N., increasing the demand for mental health treatment.
With conflict and economic hardship affecting most parts of Cameroon, there has been an upsurge in the displacement of people, creating an increase in the number of mental health conditions.
Stigmatisation such as that suffered by Sophie remains a significant problem facing mental health treatment in Cameroon.
By Amina Hilda
