MSF pulls out

The international non-governmental organisation, Medecins sans Frontieres (MSF) has suspended its operations in Equatorial Guinea, citing as its reason the manipulation of humanitarian aid by the government, which has denied the accusation. According to AFP, Equatorial Guinea’s Health Ministry expressed surprise on Monday at MSF’s move. “The government is surprised by this decision,” it said in a statement on state radio, “as it has always given the necessary assistance to this organization to develop its activities across the country.” The decision to pull out was taken in October, according to a news release issued by MSF on 31 December 1999 and which was faxed to IRIN this week along with a report titled “Guinea Ecuatorial: El Espacio Humanitario Imposible’ (Equatorial Guinea: Impossible Humanitarian Space). In the report, MSF said it found it impossible to carry out its humanitarian work in the country. It said that obstacles imposed by the government denied it access to “people who are suffering the direct consequences of the corruption of a regime which does not seem to care about the consequences of its greed”. It cited the case of a medical centre it had helped to set up in the town of Bata, which was doing well under sound management. The government, it charged, revoked the appointments of the centre’s staff, whom MSF has identified on the basis of their competence and productivity, and replaced them with public servants close to the government “attracted by the financial flows the centre was administering”. It called on the Spanish government, Malabo’s main bilateral partner, to revise its cooperation with the Equatorial Guinean government, conditioning it on respect for human rights and an end to corruption that makes humanitarian action impossible”. However, AFP quotes the Health Ministry as saying in its statement: “It’s a campaign against our government, because the reasons given are unfounded and the government has never been officially approached by MSF over the problems it finds on the ground.”