The humanitarian organization, Doctors Without Borders, DWB Friday June 12 announced it was temporarily suspending its activities in Mamfe, headquarters of Manyu Division, South West region of Cameroon until the end of July.

According to the release, the decision to suspend their activities is as a result of COVID-19 travel restrictions imposed by the Government and the lack of experienced personnel and equipment.

“We have made the difficult decision to temporarily suspend our activities in Mamfe until the end of July. This decision is temporary. We have suspended our ambulance service in Mamfe and no longer have medical staff present in the regional hospital…”

Added to that, DWB’s emergency Coordinator for Cameroon, Albert Viñas had earlier indicated that the organisation’s medical staff and front-line workers face the risk of being severely affected by the Coronavirus pandemic currently causing havoc worldwide.

“It’s key to protect them and ensure safe patient flow, triage, and infection prevention and control measures in dedicated medical facilities,” he said.

Despite the above decision, the organization indicates it will continue supporting the community health workers in the locality and cover the Mamfe regional hospital fees for patients until the end of July and re-evaluate the situation over the coming weeks.

It equally indicated that other medical projects in the North West, South West, Far North and Centre regions are not disrupted.

Doctors Without Borders has been present in Cameroon for over thirty-years now, helping in the fight against several infectious disease outbreaks such as HIV/AIDS, Buruli ulcer, measles and cholera.