Cameroon: Four months on, an ongoing nightmare for Doctors Without Borders colleagues detained in South-West Cameroon

Neither Marguerite nor Ashu knew who the patient was, or what was his role within the separatist group. They only knew that he was a wounded man in need of medical emergency assistance. The ambulance set off at around nine o’clock in the morning, with Ashu driving and Marguerite in charge of the patient. She began to fill in the transfer forms on the patient that would later be handed over to the hospital in Kumba. While Marguerite was still filling in the form with the name given by the patient, they were stopped at the Nguti checkpoint.

Despite the explanations they gave, they were denied passage, ordered to turn around and escorted back to Mamfe. The two Doctors Without Borders colleagues were subsequently arrested and detained in Buea prison, where they remain four months later.

In detention for conducting humanitarian work

The patient was guarded by the military authorities and cared for in Mamfe. Marguerite and Ashu were kept for questioning for a few hours, released and ordered to return the next day to give their statements. The following day, 27 December, they were detained, first at the gendarmerie (armed police force). They were publicly accused of being involved in an operation to exfiltrate a terrorist, of falsifying transfer documents, and of giving the patient a false identity. They were accused of collaborating with separatist rebels in the area.

When informed of these charges and the detention, Doctors Without Borders teams in South-West thought there had been a misunderstanding that would be quickly resolved, and contacted authorities to prove that they had followed the full administrative process agreed on. None of the explanations given by Doctors Without Borders, by the legal service provided to Marguerite and Ashu, and Marguerite and Ashu's own version of what happened, have led to their release four months on.

Doctors Without Borders has reiterated that it followed the administrative process agreed with authorities for when a patient is not carrying identification. Treating and transferring the wounded and sick is the basis of what humanitarian organisations do in situations of conflict and violence, with no regard for which side of the conflict the wounded person participated. Providing emergency assistance to people in life-threatening situations is protected under Cameroonian law.

Doctors Without Borders has also specified that, as a neutral and impartial medical organisation, it has been supporting wounded patients from both sides, including those from the state armed forces. Doctors Without Borders has made it known that the transfer and care of gunshot wounded patients is a minimal part of the work in South-West Cameroon. Doctors Without Borders representatives have explained that Doctors Without Borders' contact numbers are known in the area to allow people to use them for emergencies and that Doctors Without Borders must talk to all parties to a conflict to ensure access to people and to ensure the safety of the teams. By providing these clarifications and explanations to the Cameroonian authorities, it has continuously sought for the immediate release of its colleagues.

As requested by the Ministry of Defence, the Mandela International Center, an independent Cameroonian organisation, published a report exonerating Marguerite and Ashu of any wrongdoing, as well as Doctors Without Borders itself. The report demanded the immediate release of the two colleagues. Doctors Without Borders is also calling for their immediate release.

Weeks after the arrest of Marguerite and Ashu, on 19 and 20 January 2022, two other Doctors Without Borders workers were also arrested, separately, in a different case. They are accused of collaboration with secessionism. As with Marguerite and Ashu, Doctors Without Borders is convinced in the legality of the tasks they performed for the medical organization. In both cases, Doctors Without Borders is following the Cameroonian legislative process and it is from the conviction that its colleagues were carrying out humanitarian tasks with the neutrality, independence and impartiality with which humanitarian activities should be conducted that Doctors Without Borders demands their immediate release.

Doctors Without Borders took the difficult decision to suspend activities in South-West Cameroon on 29 March to focus on obtaining the safe release of its colleagues. Doctors Without Borders finds itself in an untenable position: on the one hand, its medical activities are required, and on the other hand, those providing medical support run the risk of being persecuted for doing their work. Doctors Without Borders has a duty to the people its care for, but it needs basic preconditions to be in place that would enable to carry out medical activities in a safe and secure environment. It’s been clear that these conditions or preconditions are no longer there, and that the medical mission is not only unprotected but prosecuted. Doctors Without Borders can’t put our staff at risk.

Since the detention of the four colleagues, Doctors Without Borders representatives have engaged with the Cameroonian authorities, at local and national levels, by providing information related to its medical activities to facilitate their release, but to no avail. Doctors Without Borders remains available to continue the dialogue with the authorities and resolve this issue as soon as possible.