As the crisis rocking the North West and South West regions, which long escalated into an armed conflict, rages on, the government has stepped up its search of health workers who have been accused of having links with Ambazonia separatists.
In this light, security operatives have been indiscriminately arresting the health workers and other suspected activists. This has caused many of them to flee into hiding and the whereabouts of many is not known.
Sources say the arrested health workers and activists are being tortured and detained under horrendous and inhuman conditions. Some have reportedly died in detention.
It should be noted that not only health and humanitarian workers have been bearing the brunt of the armed conflict in the North West and South West regions; teachers, among others have also been in the eye of the storm.
Attacks on hospitals by both the military and armed separatists have left medical professionals abandoning hospitals because of concern for their lives.
It should be recalled that in August 2018, Nancy Azah and her husband, Njong Paddisco, nurses who ran separate clinics in Mbengwi, Momo Division of the North West Region, were reported to have been shot by the military while on their way to attend to people wounded in the armed conflict.
The couple’s deaths provoked outrage among medical staff who say they were being threatened by both sides of the conflict: government security forces accuse them of treating armed fighters and hiding some in hospitals while the armed separatists accuse medical staff of disclosing their identities to the military.
Elvis Ndansi, of the Cameroon trade union of nurses, had said: “The military comes, chase them out of the hospital, brutalise them, beat them. As medical personnel, we all stand to condemn these acts and say they are very wrong.
“Medical personnel are supposed to be protected in times of war. They are there to take care of all casualties, be they from the military, be they Ambazonia fighters or secessionists. Their role is to save lives,” Ndansi had added.
Meanwhile, international medical humanitarian organisation, Doctors Without Borders, had it rough with the government and separatist fighters, before ending its operations in the North West and South West regions.
In the early hours of February 4, 2021, a Doctors Without Borders ambulance was fired on by armed men while responding to a call in Muyuka, Fako Division of the South West Region. The ambulance was hit and the accompanying nurse was injured.
Doctors Without Borders was forced, in August 2021, to withdraw its teams from the North West Region after its programmes were suspended by government authorities almost eight months earlier. The suspension came after a series of allegations accusing Doctors Without Borders of supporting local armed groups, which the organisation consistently denied.
In May 2022 Doctors Without Borders also suspended its activities in the South West Region.
Meanwhile, in December 2022, five of the organisation’s staff, who had been detained for a year on charges of helping separatists, were released. The staff, four of them Cameroonians and one Indian, were tried in a military tribunal in Buea, but acquitted.
The military had arrested two of the staff in December 2021 in Nguti, Kupe-Muanenguba Division of the South West Region, while they were transporting a patient with a gunshot wound to a hospital. The military said the patient was a separatist and the next month arrested two more Doctors Without Borders staff members, accusing them of collaboration.
Despite the dropped charges, Doctors Without Borders’ Operations Manager for Central Africa, Sylvain Groulx, said they cannot yet resume the needed aid work.
Others Caught In The Web
Others who have been providing healthcare help to people affected by the crisis have also been caught in the web.
This is the case of Bih Malvis Fomukong, who worked as a nurse assistant at a private clinic in Wotutu, Buea Subdivision, Fako Division of the South West Region. Wotutu is a stronghold of separatist fighters who have many hideouts in the area.
The clinic where she worked was treating persons injured in the crisis, both civilians and soldiers. Bih and other workers of the clinic offered first aid to the injured before they were transferred to the Limbe Regional Hospital for proper medical attention.
The military is reported to have several times broken into the clinic where Bih worked, in search of wounded Ambazonia separatist fighters after every crossfire between the military and the separatist fighters.
Sometime in 2021, there was a shootout in Wotutu between the military and separatist fighters, which led to many civilians and soldiers being killed and several others wounded.
Many of the wounded, including babies, teenagers and old people were treated at the clinic where Bih worked. Because of the services Bih offered in the clinic in terms of first aid to the wounded persons, she became popular within the community and people used to call her to come treat their wounded family members even out of the clinic.
Some wounded persons are said to have been brought to Bih at home for treatment. She is said to have been lauded by members of the community.
However, in late 2021, the military reportedly stormed the residence of Mr. Augustine Fomukong Ngoh, Bih’s brother with whom she lived, accusing Bih of having been treating wounded Ambazonia fighters. After her brother escaped, Bih was arrested and whisked away to the Limbe Gendarmerie brigade, where she was tortured and detained.
The next day, Bih was accused of having been working in close collaboration with separatist fighters in Wotutu, rendering medical care to them when they were injured. She was also accused of being an informant of the separatist fighters, working with their sponsors and constantly updating them about military attacks, which are crimes against the state.
Bih was later transferred to the Buea Central Prison, while arrangements were being made for her case to be transferred to Yaounde. However, Bih is reported to have escaped from prison under circumstances which remain unclear. her whereabouts is currently unknown.
If rearrested, Bih Malvis Fomukong will be tried in a military tribunal, under the antiterrorism law, whose maximum punishment is the death penalty. This is if she is not killed outright, like many others who have been victims of extrajudicial killings.
Source: Eden Newspaper Cameroon