Editor TLN
7 Jan. (EUROPA PRESS) –
A Cameroonian military court has acquitted the five Doctors Without Borders (MSF) aid workers accused of collaborating with the country’s Anglophone separatists after they were detained in 2021 while transporting a wounded rebel for medical attention.
The army accused the detained workers of complicity with these groups, which are fighting to carve out an independent English-speaking state in Cameroon, where the majority of the population speaks French.
Now, a military court in Buea has definitively acquitted Mewouo Marguerite Gerzande, Ashu Dabinash Godlove, Yvette Enjoh Mpong, Felix Tegwi Ndum, Kale Mayu Mila and Tanyi Tanyi Elvis, all employees of the international NGO, after several appeals.
The five had been charged since December 26, 2021, shortly after they were detained by the Cameroonian military at a checkpoint in Nguti (southwest), the Actu Cameroun portal collects.
MSF decided to suspend its operations in the Cameroonian towns of Kumba and Mamfe, in the South West region of Cameroon, in July last year, after denouncing a campaign of harassment by Cameroonian government forces against its workers in the midst of the separatist conflict.
The NGO pointed out, however, that “a small team will remain in the region” to continue working for the release of these aid workers, already achieved, and, in the best of cases, to preserve a minimum of structure in the event of a possible return.
