A hospital in the Cameroonian city of Mamfe has been razed to the ground in an arson attack.
All 45 patients at Mamfe district hospital were safely transferred to another facility and there were no deaths, according to a local administrative official interviewed by the AFP news agency.
Doctors Without Borders (MSF) called Wednesday’s fire an “unprecedented attack on a hospital of vital importance” that will have “a major impact on people in a region where access to healthcare has already been gravely impacted by years of violence”.
It is not clear who was behind the attack, but local media suspect that it was the work of English-speaking separatists who want to break away from the French-speaking majority.
Five years of violent conflict between Anglophone separatists and government soldiers has seen both sides accused of abuses, while more than 6,000 people have been killed and 700,000 others displaced.
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Earlier this month Cameroonian soldiers killed nine civilians including a baby in Missong, North-West region, the defence ministry confirmed.
And on Tuesday, five soldiers were reportedly killed by suspected separatists in Njitapon in Cameroon’s West region, about 12km (8 miles) from the border with the North-West region.
SOURCE: BBCNEWS
