Five Médecins sans Frontières (MSF) employees, including four arrested in western Cameroon more than a year ago for caring for a wounded, suspected separatist rebel, have been acquitted, announced Friday January 6 their lawyer and the NGO.
The judgment was handed down on December 29 by a military court in Buea, in the west, but it was never publicly notified.
The North-West and South-West provinces, populated mainly by the Cameroonian English-speaking minority, have been the scene for six years of a very deadly conflict between separatist rebels and security forces.
Both sides are regularly accused by international NGOs and the UN of crimes and abuses, including against civilians.
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MSF denies any complicity
On December 27, 2021, two Cameroonian staff members of MSF were arrested at a road checkpoint after having taken care of in their ambulance a rebel wounded by bullet whose state of health required "
urgent assistance
" according to the NGO .
They were then imprisoned in Buea, capital of the Southwest.
Two other Cameroonian MSF employees were arrested later and a fifth, of Indian nationality, was wanted but had left the country in the meantime.
"
The five were acquitted with the benefit of the doubt
", in particular of the charge of "
complicity in secession
", "
on December 29th
" declared to AFP Me Edouard Essono, their lawyer.
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“
MSF has always defended the actions of its staff and has categorically denied any complicity with armed groups or parties to any crisis or violent conflict
,” commented the international NGO, confirming in writing to AFP the acquittal of its employees, including two women.
Two of the accused were released under judicial supervision in May 2022, one in November and the last was released on December 30, the day after the trial.
In July 2022, MSF announced the cessation of its activities in the South West and did not say whether or not it intended to resume them after the acquittal.
At the end of 2020, however, the government suspended MSF operations in the neighboring North West province, accusing its medical teams of "
collusion
" and "
complicity
" with armed separatist groups.
Civilians are the main victims of the conflict which has killed more than 6,000 people and forced more than a million people to flee their homes since the end of 2016, according to the International Crisis Group (ICG).
The power of President Paul Biya, 89, who has ruled Cameroon, a vast country in Central Africa, with an iron fist for more than 40 years, has sent massive numbers of soldiers and police to counter very violent independence groups.
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