UPROAR AS CAMEROON’S DEFENCE FORCES GET INTO SHISONG HOSPITAL
Kumbo | Cameroon
19 February 2019
13:30
By Radio Evangelium Kumbo
Outrage took over many social media platforms, Sunday, 17 February 2019, as rumour broke out that soldiers had set portions of the hospital in Shisong in flames. Shisong is a settlement in the outskirts of Kumbo, the latter which is the second largest town in the conflict stricken North West Region of Cameroon.
The rumours, with the exaggerations, did not lack a foundation. About 11 a.m. that Sunday, defence forces of Cameroon got into the premises of Saint Elizabeth Catholic General Hospital and Cardiac Centre, Shisong. It is alleged that they were in search of wounded separatist fighters who might have been admitted in the hospital.
Five military men, carrying arms, entered the hospital through the gate leading into the Farewell Home. They moved into the Cardiac Centre section of the hospital next to the Farewell Home. The soldiers, reports say, went into the wards in that section, and took out a boy who was taking care of his grandmother, admitted in the hospital.
They proceeded to the inner sections of the hospital, went to the Surgical II Unit, and moved into one of the wards. The soldiers are said to have fired some gunshots inside the hospital premises.
The Tertiary Sisters of Saint Francis who run the hospital were on a day of recollection this Sunday. Some of the Sisters immediately came to the hospital where they met the soldiers. According to the Director of the Hospital, Sr. Mary Aldrine Kinyuy, T.S.S.F, the Sisters requested that the soldiers discontinue any activity and leave the hospital premises. The Sisters then accompanied the soldiers to the hospital gate. The boy who had earlier been taken from the Cardiac Centre was let go.
At press time, it was unclear whether there was any causal link between the activity of the soldiers in the hospital and the death of one patient in the Female Medical Unit within those moments. The likelihood of trauma on patients and health workers is high. The effect of the incident on patients in the Cardiac Centre section could be disastrous and long lasting. The administration of the hospital was “uncomfortable” with the incident, said the Director.
The Shisong hospital is one of the biggest in Cameroon. It runs the only cardiac Centre in West and Central Africa. According to an informant who visited the hospital lately, it appeared that many of the cases in the hospital were almost desperate ones, as separatist fighters have blocked most roads in the area. Mostly desperate cases are taken through the tough trips to the hospital and other health facilities.
There have been growing concerns over the recurrence of gun battles between pro-independence fighters and state forces near health facilities. The actual entrance of soldiers carrying arms and using them inside a hospital has raised more eyebrows.
Violence has continued to heighten in Kumbo and environs in recent months. The crisis escalated in October of 2016, after Cameroon’s defence forces clamped down and used live ammunition on protesters. The background of the protests go as far back as the 1960s, as the English speaking minority of Cameroon has time and again raised grievances regarding marginalisation by the majority Francophone-led government. Armed Separatist groups are reported to have multiplied in the area, fighting to establish a state called Ambazonia. Civilians have been the victims of the gun battles between the state forces and Separatist fighters.
Health facilities have been increasingly unsafe in recent weeks. Some health facilities in other areas of the North West and South West Regions of Cameroon have also been under attack or threat in the crisis which does not yet look to abate.
4 comments
ONLY biya and his lrc dogs of war think RESTORATION FORCES HIDE IN HOSPITAL BEDS! What a Shame!!!
biya’s bir of the french lunatic army must be wanton fools to think that Restoration Fighters hide or lie in hospital beds. Their idiocy is overwhelming. This is exactly what led to the burning of Kumba hospital and many others in the region. The francophone dogs of war should understand that the Restoration Forces take care of their own. Is this the training biya’s bir received from France and the United States – to go into hospitals and look for wounded Restoration Forces? Wow, It beats my imagination as to how the forethought best army of french cameroun comes out to be babies armed with guns by our tax money. Their stock in trade has been to burn innocent citizens in houses as though the Restoration Forces live in those houses. What goes around comes around!!! biya and his bir dogs of war can never match our Restoration Forces and will eventually return to french cameroun in grieve, shame and despair. Stay strong Restoration Forces and continue with total dedication for the RESTORATION of AMBAZONIA. GOD IS WITH US.
One of the draw back with Southern Cameroonians communities with strong male is their inability and cowardness to fight their enemy with the strengths of their Bare hands,they must learn to stand together,move like wolves,ambush/surround these hand full of terrorists army fiercely,tie them,beat,stone,torture them to death,then
they will cease to harass,intimidate,burn down villages,Hospitals and rape young girls,they will have a gun but once ambush they won’t be able to fire the guns,these army are no different from any strong healthy civilian,they are not special,our people must stop watching them or running away while they continue to commit attrocities against their communities,they must man up!use their strength to form strong vigilante groups to ambush these handful of evil french Cameroon military,to use a gun is not the only defense during war,Amba boys cannot be in the open,those able men and women who doesn’t want to be in the bushes but want to fight,should form private vigilante groups with means to react when the military starts brutality,they can make petrol bombs to throw on their moving vehicles which uses life bullets around their communities killing innocent people & destroying properties,this war is over 2 years yet the able men and women continue to post videos of attrocities by french Cameroon army while communities of bystanders watch,cry in despair with no backbone to revenge, while these hand full of soldiers move on to their next attrocities,the people must stand up to these terrorists armies face to face.
In fact Bonnie, I share your frustration. But then, what do you expect. Despite the tremendous level of sacrifice that our people have made, you have individuals in the diaspora who are shamelessly talking with both sides of their mouth.
First these diaspora demagogues intimate on the fact that the ten day shutdown of Ambazonia was not feasible. Then when it morphed into something beyond successful there was the need to obfuscate issues with talk of diplomatic success to be followed by talk of relocating the Ambazonian Capital city.
What is really distressing is that all this grandstanding is taking place while the carnage from the LRC hooligans call Rapid Intervention Brigade is attaining levels never before seen.
The big question here is why do some in the diaspora think the Ambazonian people owe them something? Either we contribute to fortify the Restoration forces or keep our mouths shot so as to save our people from all this talk, talk and all talk, talk and talk that only serve to create confusion in the minds of Ambazonians.
what the french done understand is that this new generation french can never and will never defeat AMAZONIAN WE have gone and gone the worst fight is ahead we will tell biya that we are not joky