After nightfall, gravediggers across Tanzania gather in hazmat suits to pile the latest coronavirus victims into secret graves. In South Sudan, the vice president, defense minister and nine other cabinet members have been infected by an outbreak ripping through a nation emerging from six years of civil war. In Cameroon, the military has been ordered to hastily bury anyone suspected to have died of a mysterious respiratory illness.
Across Africa, government numbers show coronavirus infections have been significantly lower than in other parts of the world. But from Dar es Salaam in Tanzania to Yaoundé in Cameroon and cities in Somalia and across northern Nigeria, health workers are reporting a reality that bears little resemblance to the official data, with hot spots emerging in countries with few resources to tackle them.