DOCTORS WITHOUT BORDERS WINS CASE AGAINST LRC!
We have been bringing you up to date with happenings as it relates to Doctors Boarders, in December 2022, we informed you that they were stopped from working, on Monday 9th January 2023, We informed you the they were charged. Undaunted gathered that the ruling was handed down on December 29 2022 but had not been made public, the NGO’s lawyer, Edouard Essono, Today, we have something new on the table. The Buea military court has just acquitted the leaders of the NGO accused of complicity with the Ambazonia restoration fighters. In a press release dated 10 January 2023, the organization said all charges have been dropped and all five staff who were accused of complicity with the freedom fighters, facing trial in the LRC Kangaroo military tribunals have been released. “Four of the staff in question had to endure incarceration for many months,” a section of the release reads.
Following the release of five agents of the NGO who had been arrested while transporting victims of gunshot wounds to Kumba hospital, Sylvain Groulx, DWB coordinator in Central Africa said, “We are happy with the judgment which acquits the five leaders and, further, the organization Doctors without Borders,“. Doctors without borders - DWB were then accused of being in cahoots with the Ambazonia freedom fighters fighting for the recognition Ambazonia. The court has just delivered its verdict exonerating the NGO and its leaders. However, DWB regrets that its staff spent many months in jails but also that, “DWB has categorically denied any complicity with the Ambazonia restoration fighters in this violent crisis or conflict. Our staff is guided by medical ethics.
These accusations were groundless from the first instance, especially as the authorities knew exactly how we were providing medical support. Accusing medical personnel for simply doing their job, treating patients in front of them is simply against all medical ethiics,” underscores Sylvain Groulx. He recalls, however, that his team still wishes to continue its operations in Cameroun and is ready for a discussion with the government, “We remain ready to continue the discussion with the powers that be to analyze the feasibility of restarting medical and humanitarian activities in Ambazonia under such preconditions. DWB release added that on November 1, 2022, the Buea Military Tribunal ruled ‘no case to answer’ regarding the situation of a community worker who had spent 10 months in detention.
“Finally, on the 29th of December 2022, all remaining DWB staff members who had been detained were acquitted, the last of whom was released the following day. A judgement of acquittal was also declared regarding an DWB project coordinator who had been tried in absentia,” another section of the release states. According to Sylvain Groulx, MSF coordinator in Central Africa, they are ready to return to work in the war torn Ambazonia if the colonial LRC government permits. “Despite our attempts to open a channel of dialogue with the government, to ensure our teams can continue vital activities in Ambazonia the Yaounde government has been unresponsive. This has made it difficult to reach an agreement that ensures working conditions guarantee the safety of our teams and patients,” says Groulx.
Undaunted notes here that in December 2020, the colonial LRC government suspended the medical humanitarian organization in Ambazonia for reasons that they were collaborating with Ambazonia restoration fighters. Many criticized the colonial LRC government for taking such a decision, as they believed that the organization was of great help to the population hit by the socio-political crisis.
