Congo-Brazzaville: Citizens in Congo-Brazzaville Disapprove of Govt's Covid-19 Response

8 August 2024
Afrobarometer (Accra)
By Wallelign S. Hassen

Most think the government is not prepared to deal with future public health emergencies.

Key findings

  • Effects of the COVID-19 pandemic: o About one in 20 Congolese (6%) say a member of their household became ill with COVID-19 or tested positive for the virus, while one in four (25%) say someone in their household lost a job, business, or primary source of income due to the pandemic.
  • Attitudes toward vaccines: o More than four in 10 adults (43%) say they have been vaccinated against COVID-19. o Most others (44%) say they are "somewhat unlikely" or "very unlikely" to try to get vaccinated. o A majority of vaccine-hesitant citizens cite concerns about the safety of COVID 19 vaccines as their main reason for not receiving a dose. o Only three in 10 respondents (30%) say they trust the government to ensure the safety of vaccines, while 38% don't trust it at all.
  • Government response to COVID-19: o About two-thirds (65%) of Congolese say the government did a poor job of managing the response to the COVID-19 pandemic. o Strong majorities are dissatisfied with the government's efforts to provide assistance for vulnerable households (74%), ensure that health facilities are adequately resourced (65%), and minimise disruptions to children's education (60%). o Most citizens say that pandemic-related assistance was distributed unfairly (79%) and that "some" or "a lot" of the resources intended for the COVID-19 response were lost to corruption (84%). o In response to a public health emergency like a pandemic, more than half of Congolese see it as justified to postpone elections (55%) and to use the police or military to enforce public health mandates (55%). But 70% oppose censorship of the media during such a crisis.
  • Looking ahead: o More than two-thirds (68%) of Congolese think the government is not prepared to deal with future public health emergencies. o But only 45% say the government needs to invest more in preparations for such a crisis if that would mean fewer resources are available for other health services.

Congo-Brazzaville confirmed its first COVID-19 case on 14 March 2020, a 50-year-old man who had travelled from Paris (Ross, 2020). Over time, the pandemic would result in 25,227 infections and claim 389 lives in the country, including that of presidential candidate Guy Brice Parfait Kolélas in March 2021 (World Health Organization, 2024; Okamba, 2021).

The pandemic also had widespread social and economic impacts. The World Bank (2021) estimated that the poverty rate rose by 4 percentage points in 2020, placing 290,000 more people in extreme poverty. Border closures, travel restrictions, and curfews limited public movement in 2020-2021, and critics say the government used COVID-19 as a justification for limiting campaign events ahead of the 2021 election (Freedom House, 2022; Bertelsmann Stiftung, 2024).

Health officials delivered more than 800,000 vaccine doses, with 12.1% of the population receiving at least one dose (Johns Hopkins University, 2023).

This dispatch reports on a special survey module included in the Afrobarometer Round 9 questionnaire to explore the pandemic-related experiences and perceptions of citizens in Congo-Brazzaville.

Survey findings show that one in four Congolese households lost a primary source of income due to the pandemic. While a similar proportion received pandemic-related aid from the government, most citizens are dissatisfied with government efforts to provide assistance, say that assistance was distributed unfairly, and think that resources intended to address the impact of the pandemic were lost to corruption.

Overall, majorities are critical of the government's management of the COVID-19 response and think it is unprepared to deal with future public health emergencies. Only a minority of citizens trust their government to ensure the safety of COVID-19 vaccines.

Although Congolese express a willingness to let the police or military enforce public health mandates during a pandemic, most are opposed to censoring media reporting during a public health emergency.

Wallelign S. Hassen Wallelign S. Hassen is a researcher at the University of Florida.

Read the original article on Afrobarometer.

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