29, April 2022
Four months on, an ongoing nightmare for MSF colleagues detained in Southern Cameroons 0
Four months ago today, Marguerite M. and Ashu D. plunged into a nightmare which continues. They are Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) staff; Marguerite a nurse and Ashu an ambulance driver, in the South-West region of Cameroon. The area is impacted by violence that started almost five years ago, between separatist armed groups and state armed forces, where MSF provides access to free healthcare to people.
On the morning of 26 December 2021, Marguerite and Ashu were sent with an MSF ambulance to the Tinto area to pick up a man with a gunshot wound. While the vast majority of MSF ambulance movements are not related to the impact of the violence – most are linked to the urgent transport of children with malaria, women in labour or those injured in road accidents – taking care of victims of gunshot wounds is not unusual for MSF in the area. Yet, Marguerite and Ashu could not have imagined what awaited them this time.
The ambulance had some trouble locating the injured man, but finally found him at around eight o’clock in the morning. They stabilised him and put him in the ambulance, which then headed towards Kumba, in case the patient needed to be transferred to a higher-level hospital for complex surgery. The 27-year-old patient had no identification documents, which is not uncommon in Cameroon.
MSF communicated, as agreed with the authorities, this movement: the departure point of the ambulance, its destination, the type of patient it was transporting, whether or not the patient had an identity document, and whether or not they were accompanied by anyone. Despite this not being standard MSF practice, this procedure was vital in this context to prevent ambulances from being blocked at checkpoints for long periods of time, which could be detrimental to patients. Since October 2021, when the procedure for communicating with the authorities was formalised, 132 MSF ambulance transfers involving patients in various emergencies have taken place without any problems.
Neither Marguerite nor Ashu knew who the patient was, or what was his role within the separatist group. They only knew that he was a wounded man in need of medical emergency assistance. The ambulance set off at around nine o’clock in the morning, with Ashu driving and Marguerite in charge of the patient. She began to fill in the transfer forms on the patient that would later be handed over to the hospital in Kumba. While Marguerite was still filling in the form with the name given by the patient, they were stopped at the Nguti checkpoint.
Despite the explanations they gave, they were denied passage, ordered to turn around and escorted back to Mamfe. The two MSF colleagues were subsequently arrested and detained in Buea prison, where they remain four months later.
Culled from MSF
30, April 2022
Southern Cameroons Crisis: Amba fighters claim this week’s Mamfe Motor park attack 0
Ambazonia fighters in Mamfe claimed responsibility for the massive rush-hour attacks this week that ripped through the busy Mamfe Mile 2 Motor Park.
“We are in Mamfe, but your so-called Francophone military don’t know where we are,” a spokesperson for the Southern Cameroons Self Defense group in Manyu said in a new audio that threatens more attacks in Mamfe town.
“Yes, we Ambazonia fighters carried out the attack in Mile 2” he says in the Kenyang language in the audio, which was forwarded to Cameroon Concord News correspondent in Mamfe.
The Manyu Warriors made no mention of the casualties after the attack but Cameroon Concord News understands it was shooting and burning of vehicles.
Cameroon government army officials deployed to Mamfe have also come under attack for failing to respond even though an army post is located nearer the motor park.
It was unclear why the military did not deploy troops at least to the Badi River, where the fighters emerged and staged the attacks.
The explosion at the Mamfe Mile 2 Motor Park at the outskirts of the town has left many tongues wagging on the security situation in the entire Manyu Division.
By Alain Tabot-Tanyi