Reports indicate that a hospital in the Cameroonian city of Mamfe has been razed to the ground in an arson attack.
According to a local administrative official interviewed by newsmen, all 45 patients at Mamfe district hospital were safely transferred to another facility, and no deaths occurred.
Doctors Without Borders (MSF) described Wednesday’s fire as a “unprecedented attack on a vital hospital” that will have a “significant impact on people in a region where access to healthcare has already been gravely impacted by years of violence.”
It is unclear who carried out the attack, but local media believe it was carried out by English-speaking separatists seeking to break away from the French-speaking majority.
Over the course of five years, both Anglophone separatists and government soldiers have been accused of human rights violations, with over 6,000 people killed and 700,000 displaced.
Cameroonian soldiers killed nine civilians, including a baby, earlier this month in Missong, North-West region, according to the defense ministry.
On Tuesday, five soldiers were killed by suspected separatists in Njitapon, Cameroon’s West region, about 12 kilometres from the border with the North-West region.
Meanwhile, a group of soldiers have killed nine villagers including an 18-month-old child in the country’s northwest.
The four soldiers were searching for a missing comrade in the village of Missong at night when they came across a group of angry villagers, according to a statement released by the defense ministry on Tuesday.
The statement was an unusual admission of blame by the army, which has been accused by civilians and rights groups of numerous killings and abuses during the ongoing separatist conflict.