Cameroon: Cameroon loses ground in fight against maternal mortality

Ngwa Amos, who earns a living by taxiing people from town to town on his motorbike, is now a single father of four. His wife died in labour on a recent morning at the Bamenda General Hospital in northwestern Cameroon. The African Union, along with government and nongovernmental organisations, have pledged to reduce maternal deaths in this region, but Cameroon is moving further from that goal. Cameroon's maternal mortality rate was 550 deaths for every 100,000 births in 1990 – the reference year for the goals. Since then, the key figure has risen to 1,000 deaths, according to the latest UN statistics.