This reads like a failing part on the organisers to manage such risk, and decided to kick up a stink about it instead of implementing a fallback strategy.
What would your “fallback” be, eight days out? Very curious.
It's no replacement for an in-person conference, but this approach is better than straight up cancelling everything.
You'd take a conference a year in the making and shift it online over a weekend from your hotel room in a developing country? No you would not. I don't blame them for not doing that.
> What the government wanted from us in order to lift the postponement