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Hospital on front line of Cameroon anglophone conflict
BUEA, Cameroon, Oct 5, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Buea’s regional hospital looks
like any other in Cameroon, with its long whitewashed corridors and smartly
dressed doctors and nurses.
But it is on the front line of the battle raging between government forces
and the fighters of a nascent English-speaking insurgency.
Between 10 to 20 of hospital director George Enow Orock’s medical staff
have fled since the conflict began one year ago following a symbolic
independence declaration by so-called “Ambazonia Republic” separatists.
“We have seen an upsurge in patients with trauma, most obviously from
gunshot wounds,” said Orock, 62, a doctor for 34 years.
The violence has claimed the lives of at least 420 civilians, 175 members
of the security forces and an unknown number of separatists, according to the
International Crisis Group think-tank.
“Unfortunately we have seen a decline in our regular patients. Women coming
for antenatal care, children coming for their routine vaccines, post-natal
management and routine patients with commonly known illnesses.”
Orock, whose office is adorned with a plethora of diplomas and
qualifications, said that before the conflict the hospital would treat
roughly one gunshot wound a year.
The trauma team now handles between five and ten per week.
Mbuh Ronaldo, 20, was shot in the hip by police on Monday in a case of
mistaken identity at a checkpoint in the Sandpit area of Buea, he said.
– ‘Two options: gun or machete’ –
“They said Ambaz used to walk through that route,” recalled Ronaldo, an
anglophone Cameroonian, who was evidently in pain and had a large dressing on
his right hip, using a local term for the separatists.
“They realised it was a mistake,” he added, wearing a red hooded jumper and
clutching a set of white prayer beads. “They had to help me up and take me to
hospital.”
His mother Obedia sat on an adjacent bed in the sparsely equipped ward
fighting back tears, gesturing to a jar of Ovaltine and other groceries
bought by neighbours for Ronaldo’s hospital stay.
Army patrols and checkpoints are common sights across the southwest region,
of which Buea is the capital, and the northwest which together make up the
anglophone areas of Cameroon.
Eighty percent of the country is French-speaking, and 20 percent
anglophone.
“See at 10:30 am, this corridor would have been packed,” said Orock as he
weaved through the hospital checking on patients’ progress and greeting staff
by name.
MORE/SSS/1633 hrs
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In southwest Cameroon alone, 246,000 people have been displaced, according
to the UN.
A number of the civilians who have remained behind have suffered at the
hands of either the separatists or the security forces.
“One young man I know by name called me. The guys said we were supporters
of the (pro-government) mayor. I saw two other guys come and one guy just
pulled out a gun,” said Motome Beckley, 48, who was attacked at his home on
Sunday.
“One guy just said ‘shoot him let’s go’. The other guy behind me had the
gun and the machete so he started cutting me. He said ‘we are giving you two
options: gun or machete’.”
– ‘Very tense situation’ –
The separatist attackers, who accused Beckley of collaborating with the
authorities, hacked off his right hand above the wrist.
In the next ward a man with a series of pins in his right leg said he was
beaten by soldiers who suspected him of being a separatist.
“I can’t walk. It was the military that attacked me,” said Enowtabi Ashu,
32, of the incident in the nearby coastal resort town of Limbe in early
August.
“They used an iron bar and they started beating me. They said I am an
Amba.”
Orock said that cases like Ashu’s were among those “that stress the
hospital”. “Our staff are working with a lot of psychological trauma… the
regional hospital Buea, like all hospitals, bears the brunt of the conflict.”
President Paul Biya, who will seek a seventh term in polls on Sunday, has
vowed to invest in healthcare but has made no public reference to the burden
of conflict on the anglophone region’s hospitals and clinics.
Another consequence of the unrest is that bodies of victims have gone
unclaimed because families cannot afford funerals — or because the deceased
were linked to the separatists.
“Maybe they’re civilians, maybe they’re Amba — there is no way of
knowing,” said Orock.
Of the 30 bodies crammed into the hospital mortuary’s nine fridges, ten are
unclaimed victims of the conflict, Orock estimated.
“The separatists find themselves in the hospital, the military
unfortunately also find themselves in the hospital. Both parties expect
maximum cooperation and efficiency — sometimes without payment,” said Orock.
“These are things the hospital does not budget for. It’s a very tense
situation. We pray it cools off.”
BSS/AFP/SSS/1634 hrs