By Doh James Sonkey
Cameroon has indicated its willingness to drop neonatal deaths from present 28 to 12 on 1000 new births by 2030. The decision was disclosed at a media-café organised last November 14, 2025 in Yaoundé to raise awareness on giving premature babies a strong start for a better future. Organised by the Ministry of Public Health in collaboration with the United Nations International Children Emergency Fund, UNICEF was represented at the occasion by a Communication Specialist at UNICEF, Laure Atangana-Menouga.
Opening the meeting on behalf of Public Health SG, Prof Richard Njock, the Director of Family Health at the Ministry of Public Health, Dr Ebongo Zacheus told reporters that, “We’ll have a talk on the unfortunate babies who were born before their due date. If you want to talk of their due date here, we mean babies who were born before 37 weeks of pregnancy or gestation. So, we are working in concert with the international community to try to create an awareness through this day so that, we can sensitise the population on what the government is doing through the Ministry of Public Health in terms of policies, strategies, efforts to reinforce the healthcare system, coordination and good governance so that, all these policies and strategies can be transmitted into concrete interventions, actions and activities of the field so that, the preterm babies may have the same opportunities to thrive like any other baby who was born normally.”
In a release earlier, Public Health Minister, Dr Manaouda Malachie had disclosed that Cameroon in collaboration with the International Community will celebrate the month of Prematurity from November 1-30, 2025.
According to World Health Organization, WHO, 1 out of 10 babies are born prematurely each year in the world.
Families alone bear the financial treatment burden of these children that vary from FCFA 6 00 000 to 1 million.
In his presentation, Dr Nhanag Samuel disclosed that prematurity is still in Cameroon.
Dr Njefi Yves said in his presentation that by 2030 their objective is to go down from 28 to 12 deaths for each 1000 births.
He concluded that ‘‘investing in neonatal care is investing in the future of Cameroon.’’