International medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has called on the Cameroonian government to lift the ban on providing free, essential medical care in the restive Anglophone North-West region of the country after they were blocked more than six months ago. The government had accused MSF of being too close to separatists in the area.

“That is clearly ungrounded,” says Emmanuel Lampaert, MSF Operations Coordinator for Central Africa, talking about the government’s justification for pulling MSF’s authorization to work in the region.

“Whatever there may be in terms of perceptions or accusations or grievances, what rationale can justify this ongoing suspension and this blow for vital support? Access to care should not be denied,” he tells RFI.

The numbers of people treated in 2020 underlines the importance of their free services to the North-West Region: MSF teams provided more than 42,500 medical consultations, performed nearly 3,300 surgeries, and dealt with at least 4,400 patients who had been referred to MSF’s free, 24/7 ambulance service.

“Our ambulance call center continues to receive emergency requests, which they are forced to decline,” he says.

MSF is one of the few medical NGOs in the region, a conflict zone since late 2017. Described as the “Anglophone crisis”, fighting kicked off after peaceful protests by teachers and lawyers in Bamenda, the capital of North-West Cameroon. Demonstrations were violently quashed by Cameroonian security forces.

Protests sparked over anger about the perceived marginalization by the Francophone ruling majority, especially over the use of French in the legal and education systems.

The violent quelling of demonstrations propelled some Anglophone separatists to take up arms against the security forces, later making a self-declaration of independence for so-called Ambazonia. Fighting continues between separatists and government security forces, with civilians caught in the crossfire and accusations of human rights abuses committed by both sides.

Healthcare and medical training impacted

In a conflict zone like North-West Cameroon, the lack of basic health services, such as treatment for diarrhea, respiratory tract infections, and malaria, has contributed to a major health crisis.

Additionally, MSF treated 180 survivors of sexual violence last year, and helped more than 1,000 women with obstetrical emergencies. Many residents are living in the bush, because they fear for their lives, forced to flee their homes. Unsanitary conditions in the bush have also exacerbated health issues.

Part of MSF’s remit in the region is the training and equipping of community health workers, which has also been halted by the government, says Lampaert.

Health workers, both local and foreign, have been subject to attacks, as both the government and separatists accuse people who are trying to provide healthcare of taking sides in the conflict.

“Where is the interest? What justifies all of this?” says Lampaert, exasperated, adding that people in the region describe ongoing harassment.

“It’s continuing, and at moments, it’s increasing with high insecurity, regular attacks and intimidation against medical staff… and meanwhile the humanitarian and health needs have surged during the past years due to this armed violence, so there is a difficult equation there,” he adds.

Lampaert says MSF has made an effort to respond to all accusations of bias and has presented this to the government in Cameroon.

“But in the end, there’s been no clear signal, and access is still denied. At six months, suspension [of MSF’s activities] is ongoing and we ask for it to be lifted,” he says.

Source: RFI

Ambazonia Restoration Forces have attacked a gendarmerie station in Kumba the chief city in Meme Division. According to witnesses, Amba gunmen surrounded the station threw homemade bombs into the station and fired guns into the building.

No Southern Cameroons group has claimed responsibility for the attack, which followed the pattern of others carried out by Ambazonian fighters, including the use of improvised explosives in Bui and Ndian.

Cameroon Concord News Meme Bureau Chief who contributed to this report said blood could be seen on the floor of the captain’s office. The Ambazonia Restoration Forces were heard chanting anti French Cameroun songs and saying that they would kill any gendarmerie or police officer in Meme.

Ambazonia is the indigenous name of the former United Nations trust territory of the Southern Cameroons under United Kingdom Administration for close to half a century, excluding the period of British connection with the territory from 1843 to 1887. When Republique du Cameroun took control of the territory, it split it into two parts and designated them as “northwest and southwest provinces/regions of Republique du Cameroun.” This was rejected and continues to be rejected by the people of the former British Southern Cameroons. The people of the territory insist on the indigenous name of their Homeland which is Ambazonia. This is consistent with a 1978 recommendation of UNESCO that African countries should call their countries by the name they wish to be known. Here, the designations ‘Ambazonia’ and ‘the Southern Cameroons’ are used interchangeably.

Cameroon’s weak central government has been unable to stop Ambazonia increasingly bloody attacks.

By Fon Lawrence in Kumba

The Cameroonian navy has embarked on a search for patrol boats after its attempt to acquire two Bollinger vessels from Washington was blocked as a sanction for abuses committed by the army in Southern Cameroons.

Source: Africa Intelligence

Air travelers have been warned that a “technical issue” affecting lighting at Cameroon’s largest airport, Douala International Airport, will affect their journeys, a government official said on Thursday.

Cameroon’s Minister of Transport, Jean Ernest Massena Ngalle Bibehe said, there had been a problem with the lighting on the runways.

“The malfunctions are linked to an insulation fault of cables,” Ngalle Bibehe said in a statement on Thursday.

“This situation had as a direct consequence the postponement of certain flights departing from this airport and the unfolding of other flights which were to land there, thus causing disruptions in the operating programs of the airlines,” he added.

The minister assured that competent authorities were actively working to ensure normal activities resume at the airport in the shortest possible time.

Source: Xinhuanet

Prime Minister Dion Ngute was questioned by Francophone prosecutors recently about Cameroon’s response to the coronavirus outbreak and the alleged disappearance of the country’s coronavirus relief fund.

The prosecutors are reportedly looking into how about $335 million of Cameroon’s coronavirus relief fund has gone missing.

Cameroon Intelligence Report understands that Prime Minister Dion Ngute, who was questioned as a witness for three hours in his residence in Yaoundé is not under any criminal investigation.

Equipment for the coronavirus pandemic in the country has also gone missing. Reports say some seven government ministers have so far been called to answer questions before an auditing panel over the matter.

Accordingly, the funds that had been allocated to ministries went missing along with the personal protective equipment donated to Cameroon by the Chinese mega-investor Jack Ma to curb the spread of the coronavirus.

As a result, the 88-year-old President Paul Biya, ordered the investigation. But reports say Cameroonians are doubtful that the investigation will lead to any meaningful outcome.

A source at the Ministry of Public Health hinted this reporter that the money was used to pay accrued salaries owed the military.

By Rita Akana in Yaoundé