MSF Focus on Cameroon

MSF teams are supporting the care for COVID-19 patients in regional hospitals in the northwest and southwest regions. We have installed pre-screening spots at the entrance of these facilities, supported the setting up of COVID-19-specific isolation and treatment wards for suspected and confirmed patients, and have trained medical and non-medical staff who will run the units. A dedicated ambulance from our fleet is responsible for all movements related to possible COVID-19 patients in the northwest region. The ambulance callcentre now has an updated questionnaire to identify suspected cases, and special procedures are in place regarding staff and vehicle disinfection.

In Yaounde we are supporting the health authorities in the Hospital General, where 20 beds have been set up to receive patients for treatment. We are implementing a safer patient circuit as well as infection prevention control measures. We are also preparing Djongolo facility by increasing the bed capacity from 54 to 134 beds, in addition to support with patient care. In Buea regional hospital a 20-bed isolation ward has been established and staff have been trained in COVID-specific procedures.

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Right now, Médecins Sans Frontières is providing much needed support and medical care in over 30 countries to counter the COVID-19 pandemic.

Our teams are also gearing up to confront potential outbreaks in the hundreds of areas we were already working before the pandemic struck. We are deploying medical staff, sending supplies and applying nearly 50 years of experience fighting epidemics to protect the most vulnerable and save lives.

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FIND OUT MORE ABOUT CORONAVIRUS COVID-19

Home to over 24 million people, Cameroon has one of the highest literacy rates in Africa and is often referred to as "Africa in miniature" due to its geological and cultural diversity.

Since 2011, violence in Nigeria has increasingly spilled over into Cameroon. Attacks by armed opposition groups and the counterinsurgency operations of the Nigerian army have forced hundreds of thousands of people from northeast Nigeria to seek refuge in Cameroon, Chad and Niger.

Boko Haram burned our house and took all our cows and belongings. They kidnapped my wife and two of my children and held them in one of their jails. My wife managed to escape and is trying to join me in Minawao, but I don’t have any news of my children. I don’t even know if they are still alive.

Samuel 45, from Nigeria

Displacement and violence have put a further strain on Cameroon’s already weak and overstretched health system. In the area bordering Nigeria, health facilities lack staff and medical supplies and many have been abandoned altogether.

In response, Médecins Sans Frontières has provided medical care, trained Ministry of Health staff, and donated mass casualty kits to local hospitals. Since 2016, MSF has scaled up activities in several locations in the north of the country, providing basic healthcare services (such as laboratory diagnosis, antibiotics, wound dressing, and physiotherapy), emergency surgical activities, maternal services and nutritional support in the UNHCR-administered Minawao refugee camp.

MSF expanded its programs in several locations in northern Cameroon to assist people displaced by continuing conflict and insecurity in the Lake Chad region.

Our staff have carried out medical consultations, improved water and sanitation, and assisted with the construction of 32 kilometres of pipes to find a permanent solution to the scarcity of water in Minawao camp.

More recently, political tensions and conflict between the Francophone and Anglophone people of Cameroon have splintered the country. MSF is responding to the evolving crisis by providing medical assistance where needed.