Doctors Without Borders Leaving West Cameroon After Government Suspension

YAOUNDE, CAMEROON - Withdrawing emergency health care services amid a crisis was a difficult decision, but it was one that Doctors Without Borders (MSF) had to make after the government suspended its operations for eight months. 

Cameroonian authorities have accused the aid group of helping separatist groups in the country’s English-speaking northwest region, a charge the group has strongly denied. Laura Martinelli, MSF’s coordinator for the northwest region, where thousands of people need health care access, said MSF had seen no signs of the Cameroon government's authorization for the group to resume its activities. “We simply cannot remain indefinitely on standby in an area where we are not authorized to do our job," she said. "But we still hope that the [Cameroonian] authorities will revise this decision for the sake of the population, because thousands of patients benefited from our free emergency services. We are therefore maintaining a liaison office to continue with the dialogue in the region and at the central level.”