Editorial: Cameroon should re-engage Doctors Without Borders.

"Many health centres have closed or are non-functional, medical workers and facilities are being directly targeted by violence while insecurity is hindering the supply of drugs and medical equipment," one of the reports by humanitarian organisations said.

Given the high level of insecurity, humanitarian organisations such as Doctors Without Borders, DWB, "face serious problems to reach displaced citizens, who often hide in the bush for their safety". 

Doctors Without Borders defied the risks for years "to provide medical aid in such challenging conditions".

According to the organisation, that has been existing in Cameroon for 40 years. It "set up a decentralised model of care in the North West and South West Regions, which is delivered directly in the community by the community".

It relies on community health volunteers who "are the bridge between the health facilities that we support and the vulnerable communities that don't have access to health centres; either because they are displaced, because health structures are closed or because they can’t afford medical services,” says an DWB official.

The International NGO has been present in Cameroon since 1984, supporting the Ministry of Public Health in emergency management as well as in the fight against HIV/AIDS and other pandemics.

In 2020, the organisation said just in the North West Region alone, it treated 180 survivors of sexual violence, provided 1,725 mental health consultations, performed 3,272 surgeries and transported 4,407 patients by ambulance, more than 1,000 of who were women about to give birth. 

"Our supported community health workers provided 42,578 consultations, mainly for diseases such as malaria, diarrhoea and respiratory tract infections. Our medical staff also treated direct victims of armed violence in the Region, in accordance with the principles of international humanitarian law, Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions and medical ethics," DWB said.

There is no qualm that the group has on humanitarian grounds been of tremendous service to the people of the two English-speaking Regions. 

Despite the urgent need for medical assistance in the North West and South West Regions, DWB packed out in April 2022, two years after its activities were suspended by the government in the North West Region, accusing them of supporting the activities of separatist fighters.

In a statement indefinitely suspending its activities in the South West, DWB’s Deputy Coordinator of Operation in the Region, Dennis Habaasa, had said: “Starting from 29th of March 2022, Doctors Without Borders will suspend all its activities in all communities within the South West Region of Cameroon”.

The release explained that: “Despite our continued efforts and unwavering commitment to improve access to health services to vulnerable communities, the current situation makes it impossible for Doctors Without Borders to continue providing this support, while maintaining the standards the organisation is committed to ensure for its patients”.

The decision therefore meant DWB ceased to provide free ambulance services and medical care support to the communities as well as support to private or public medical facilities as it had been doing, especially since the start of the armed conflict in the two Anglophone Regions.

Its North West Region branch was also suspended in December 2020, by the Ministry of Territorial Administration. They later folded up after being accused by the North West Governor of supporting separatist fighters. 

DWB had however consistently denied the accusation, both publicly and in meetings with authorities.

In repudiating the accusations, DWB explained that its staff had been targeted in the conflict. 

For instance, on February 4, 2021, while responding to a call to rescue a dying patient in Muyuka, they were attacked by gunmen. 

The violence left its nurse and driver injured, while the ambulance was seriously pierced by bullets.

A community health volunteer with the DWB was also killed in Kumba, in July 2020.

The organisation’s staff are also known to have been arrested and charged while transporting a patient suspected to be a separatist fighter, from Manyu to Mutengene for treatment.

DWB had to leave the Regions under such distressing conditions, at a time the World Health Organisation, WHO, reported that Cameroon is one of the few African nations "experiencing a crisis in human resources for health". 

There are approximately 1.1 physicians and 7.8 nurses and midwives per 10,000 population, which is below the average requirement in developing countries.

The health delivery system is literally so sick that government top officials, including jailed barons of the regime, are often evacuated abroad for treatment when they fall sick.

It is an organisation like Doctors Without Borders, that often comes to the rescue of the common man on the street, who cannot afford to pay for medical attention in local government or private medical facilities.

The Guardian Post is, however, delighted to know that government is currently in dialogue with the humanitarian organisation to resume services in the North West and South West Regions.

At a press conference in Yaounde within the week, the Head of Mission of Doctors Without Borders to Cameroon, Alexis Bahati, told reporters that negotiations were far advanced for a return of their medical teams to the two English-speaking Regions of the country.

He, however, explained that the decision for them to return to the two Regions lies more with the government. 

“Doctors Without Borders is not the decider as to when our activities might resume in the North West and South West Regions…government is aware that we are in the country. They are aware of our experience and capacity," Bahati added.

The Guardian Post can vouch that residents of the two Regions urgently need the experience and capacity of Doctors Without Borders. 

While we urge Yaounde to facilitate their resumption, given the dire need of medical services in the "risky zones" as classified by the state, it must give its volunteers maximum protection and respect the venerated Hippocratic Oath to treat patients without discrimination.

This story was first published in The Guardian Post issue No:3143 of Wednesday June 19, 2024