Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has resumed talks with Cameroonian authorities over a possible reassessment of health needs in the Northwest and Southwest, a first step that could eventually pave the way for medical operations to resume after years of disruption. For now, however, the humanitarian organization has neither announced a return nor set a timetable.

“We are considering conducting a reassessment. I would not speak of a return yet,” Karsou Maman, MSF’s head of mission in Cameroon, said in an interview published by Mutations on August 26, 2026. He said any resumption of operations would depend on the findings of the assessment.

MSF is in discussions with the Ministry of Public Health. Maman said he had also met with the minister in charge of defense to explain how the organization envisions future cooperation with the various parties involved. The proposed assessment could include the Ministry of Territorial Administration and the offices of regional governors. No date has been set.

The latest discussions build on contacts earlier this year. On April 23, 2026, the public health minister met with an MSF representative to discuss the situation in the two Anglophone regions. In an account published two days later, the ministry said MSF had proposed a reassessment of health conditions in the Northwest and Southwest and that both sides wanted to strengthen their cooperation.

That exchange, however, did not constitute authorization for MSF to resume operations or an agreement on the terms under which it could work in the regions.

Two suspensions on different timelines

References to a five-year break obscure two separate timelines. In the Northwest, authorities suspended MSF’s medical activities on December 8, 2020, pending a revised framework for cooperation with the government. The decision followed accusations that the organization had supported local armed groups, allegations MSF categorically denied.

After nearly eight months of forced inactivity, MSF announced on August 3, 2021, that it would withdraw its teams. It maintained a small liaison office in Bamenda to continue discussions with the authorities.

In the Southwest, the suspension came later. MSF halted operations there on March 29, 2022, after four staff members were arrested between December 2021 and January 2022. The first arrests, in late December 2021, followed the transport of a gunshot patient from the Tinto area in an MSF ambulance.

Authorities suspected the employees of complicity with separatists. MSF said it had informed military authorities before the transfer and maintained that its medical mandate required it to treat patients according to their needs, regardless of their affiliation.

Five MSF staff members were prosecuted in total. Four were detained, while a project coordinator was tried in absentia. According to MSF, the Buea military court ruled on November 1, 2022, that there was insufficient evidence against one employee. The remaining defendants were acquitted on December 29, and the last person in detention was released the following day.

The dispute did not lead MSF to leave Cameroon entirely. The organization continues to run a cholera prevention project in Yaoundé and medical and surgical activities in the Far North. The current talks concern only a potential resumption of operations in the Northwest and Southwest.

Major medical capacity would need to be restored

Before the December 2020 suspension, MSF said it performed 3,272 surgical procedures in the Northwest that year, transported 4,407 patients by ambulance and provided 42,578 consultations through community health workers it supported.

In the Southwest, its ambulances transported more than 8,000 patients who needed emergency care in 2021, while MSF-supported facilities assisted 2,284 deliveries.

Health needs remain high. In its June 2026 report, the United Nations Population Fund said security conditions in the Northwest and Southwest remained unstable, with movement restrictions, nighttime curfews and so-called “ghost town” days. These constraints continue to disrupt access to essential services, including health care.

For now, the main change is institutional: MSF and Cameroonian authorities have agreed to reassess the situation together after several years of tension. The talks do not yet represent an agreement for MSF to return, administrative authorization or a defined medical program.

Any resumption will depend on the assessment results, a framework accepted by the authorities and guarantees of security, independence, impartiality and neutrality sought by MSF.

Source: Sbbc