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By Gary Raynaldo   DIPLOMATIC TIMES

The Cameroon government blamed separatists of setting a hospital on fire Monday in the southwestern town of Kumba that killed four people.  Kumba lies about 70 kilometres (45 miles) north of Buea, capital of the Southwest region which along with the Northwest region is home to an anglophone minority that accounts for about a fifth of the country’s population. The incident occurred on National Youth Day, the anniversary of the 1961 referendum which saw Cameroon’s western English-speaking areas joined onto the francophone areas which had just won independence from France.  According to the Cameroon Ministry Of Communication,  gunmen raided a hospital and burnt it to the ground in western Cameroon where anglophone separatists have been fighting troops.  

“The blaze was perpetrated by a horde of secessionist rebels estimated at about 20 individuals. The said assailants climbed the hospital gate at around 12:30 a.m., causing panic with heavy machine gun firing. They also entered the staff residences and main services of the hospital, including medicine, surgery and the operating room, burning the entire buildings hosting these units of the Kumba District Hospital.”

Cameroon’s Minister of Communication Rene Emmanuel Sadi.

According to Sadi,  4 persons died, including 2 patients burned alive on their hospital beds, 7 vehicles of the hospital staff burned, and the Kumba District Hospital nearly burned off.

“The Government condemns in the strongest possible terms these unspeakable atrocities and barbaric acts of extreme cruelty, which have caused the death of innocent citizens and the destruction of hospital infrastructure that is so needed for the health of populations and the preservation of human lives,”  Sadi added .

United States Condemns The Arson Attack on Kumba District Hospital

credit: U.S. Embassy Yauonde twitter /

The U.S. Embassy in Cameroon issued a statement condemning the deadly hospital fire.

“We call on the Cameroonian government to conduct a transparent investigation into this crime, to ensure the courts hold the perpetrators accountable, and to make the Cameroonian people aware of its findings. We urge both sides in the Northwest and Southwest Regions of Cameroon to allow unfettered access to humanitarian and healthcare workers, and never to attack hospitals or health centers.  We appeal to both sides of the Anglophone conflict to forswear further violence and enter into a broad-based dialogue without pre-conditions.”

Statement by U.S. Embassy in Cameroon Feb. 12, 2019. 

Separatists took to social media, denying that they were responsible for the fire incident in the hospital, and accuse the Cameroon government of trying to tarnish their image internationally.