Burundi

Obstetric fistulas affect some two million women worldwide. MSF is training gynecologists to treat this devastating condition.

The only medical facility in Burundi providing free, comprehensive treatment for obstetric fistula may close due to a lack of trained medical staff

Ensuring pregnant women have timely access to emergency obstetric care has reduced maternal deaths by as much as 74 percent in parts of Burundi and Sierra Leone.

Obstetric fistulas are one of the most serious consequences of obstructed labor. An estimated 2 million women in developing countries are living with fistulas, many on the margins of society.

Women who survive complicated deliveries can develop fistulas. Struck by incontinence, they live hidden away from others, resigned to their fate and suffering in silence.

by Dr. Martin De Smet, Head of MSF's Working Group on Malaria

Burundi has been grappling with a serious increase of malaria patients since the start of the year.

Drops of sweat run down her neck, but her eyes are lit up. Mary Nicizanye is recovering at the MSF center in Kabezi just south of the capital, Bujumbura. Four days ago she gave birth to a little girl here.

MSF’s diagnosis was that incidence of the disease is indeed higher, which prompted the organization to reinforce its response in the area.

Heavy rains in the province of Bujumbura Rural in Burundi caused the Rusizi River to burst its banks, and flood the MSF Center for Obstetrical Emergencies in Kabezi (called CURGO), where 42 women and 10 newborns were hospitalized.

On June 19, 2009, MSF will hand over operation of the Seruka Center in the Burundian capital of Bujumbura, to a local association.

Paul had received some money. He was supposed to share it with us. When my aunt, my brother and I went to see him, he said he had only received 20,000 francs and he would give us 1,000 francs each. We said that was not enough. He said he couldn’t give us any more than that and told us to come with him to the place where the money was.

I came back from school, I had lunch and was getting ready to go out again. My father offered me 150 francs to come to the bedroom with him. I said I didn’t want to go. But then he took me over to the bed by force and did bad things to me.

I was walking down the street and as I passed this one house, a man took me by force, dragged me inside and raped me. I didn’t know him, I had never seen him before.

About 560,000 inhabitants of Kirundo province in northern Burundi, most of whom are farmers, are facing a food crisis. More and more children are suffering from malnutrition due to the shortage of food. Thousands of inhabitants are believed to have fled to Rwanda, Uganda, and Tanzania, all in search of food. MSF launched an emergency intervention in the province on February 4

Following a new outbreak of cholera in the Burundian capital Bujumbura, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is re-opening its specialized treatment center for the disease.

Up to 160 people were killed and 106 wounded Friday, August 13, 2004, when a military group attacked a refugee camp in Gatumba, Burundi, near the border of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

In early July, MSF reacted to an outbreak of cholera among refugees sheltering in the Cibitoke region of western Burundi.

New York/Bujumbura,  May 6, 2004 - One million people in Burundi are excluded from even the most basic healthcare and two-thirds of the population have to resort to extreme measures like forced labor or selling their meager belongings for treatment, according to a new report from Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF). This situation is not linked to Burundi's ongoing war, but rather is a direct consequence of a new healthcare financing system.