Investigations mounted by this press have revealed the startling, incorrigible and squalid conditions under which soldiers deployed at quarantine homes are forced to endure.
Apart from being under constant threat of contracting the COVID-19 virus themselves, they are subject to very poor living and feeding conditions.
It was learnt that the soldiers who are performing the high-risk job of providing security at quarantine homes to ensure that inhabitants in these homes do not leave the homes, while visitors are restrained from entering these quarantine homes, are suffering for want of regular feeding and proper sleeping facilities.
This press gathered that even though there is an arrangement for these soldiers to receive thirty thousand (Le30,000) per week as feeding allowance, they sometimes go for one or two months without.
In such a situation, it is highly likely that the soldiers deployed at these homes are prone to bribery in order to get money to feed themselves which in itself is a high security risk as the country is fighting to curtail COVID-19.
Our investigations further revealed that the sleeping accommodation provided for these soldiers is squalid as most of the camp beds provided are worn out and the soldiers are left with no option other than to sleep on benches, chairs or on the bare floor.
The most worrisome fact is that such a situation leaves the soldiers open to health hazards and if this situation is not immediately addressed by the relevant authorities, then the country stands the risk of encouraging COVID-19 to spread.
Despite the fact that the soldiers are on regular payroll, the government (COVID-19 authorities) had arranged for soldiers deployed at quarantine homes to be receiving weekly feeding allowances for their upkeep but this, according to our investigations is not happening in a timely manner and when it does, it comes in the form of backlog for only a couple of weeks and not for the stretch of time the soldiers would have gone without feeding allowance.
If the authorities are serious about the fight against COVID-19, then those that are deployed to ensure that infected persons are disallowed from leaving the homes should be well taken care of; not only because they deserve it, but also because they stand the risk of either contracting the virus or abandoning their posts in search of food, leaving infected people to roam where they will, thus putting COVID-19 uninfected people at risk.
Efforts to contact the relevant authorities were futile even as we went to press but we shall keep on trying.
