Beginning of an end? Doctors Without Borders withdraw from Cameroon’s Northwest region
Admin GHRTV
On August 3, 2021, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), translated from French as Doctors Without Borders, a non-governmental organization providing free medical and humanitarian assistance, announced the withdrawal of its medical teams from the Northwest region of Cameroon due to a nearly eight-months-long suspension of activities.
The Northwest and the Southwest regions are Cameroon’s Anglophone regions. For more than four years, these two regions have been torn between the Francophone, government-led forces, and the Anglophone separatists in an armed conflict known as the Anglophone Crisis. Due to continuous violence and human rights violations, the residents and asylum-seekers of the Northwest and the Southwest regions struggle to access healthcare facilities or even basic care.
The MSF had been active in the Northwest region since 2018, provided free medical care and ambulance services. The MSF medical teams offered surgical and maternal care, consultations for diseases like malaria, diarrhea, tuberculosis, and psychological support to victims of sexual violence and armed conflict.
However, on December 8, 2020, the government of Cameroon suspended all MSF activities in the Northwest region for an indefinite time. The official reasoning behind the suspension was the need to review the framework for collaboration with the government.
On multiple occasions, the MSF had called the government of Cameroon to reconsider the suspension and allow the organization to resume its activities. Unfortunately, as no updates were given, the MSF chose to withdraw all staff who remained on standby in the Northwest region. The MSF will keep a small liaison office in the region’s capital of Bamenda in case the government decides to lift the suspension.
For more information, please see https://www.msf.org/doctors-
By Anna Mamedova
