Colombia

Armed conflict is intensifying across the Nariño Department, in the southwest of the country, where various armed groups are fighting for the land due to its strategic relevance, the presence of coca crops and economic interest. As a result of the fighting, 12,400 people have been displaced in Nariño in 2009 alone, according to official figures. Mostly, these people receive little or no care during the first days following their arrival.

"Internally displaced people in Colombia often describe themselves as being 'refugees for life'. On the one hand, this stigmatizes them. On the other, the conflict has penetrated deeply into the social fabric of society."

An MSF patient from Quibdo, Colombia, was 13 when she was raped by her neighbor two years ago. The difficult consequences have had a major impact on her life.

"The man lived next to us. We all shared a bathroom. I was home alone, and it was morning before I had to leave for school. I was washing and he saw me and came into the house. My little sister had damaged our TV plug so he told me to come in and watch his TV. So I came in with a chair, and as I was sitting down he came close to me, grabbed my arms and tried to make me sit on the bed."

Following recent displacement of families around Dubasa River, in the Chocó region of northwest Colombia, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is bringing medical care and water and sanitation support to the population.

In Colombia, few victims of sexual violence seek medical care immediately after being raped. Fear of stigmatization and safety concerns are some of the reasons that prevent them from doing so. MSF provides comprehensive health care for victims of rape and tries to reduce the barriers they face in accessing services.

New York, December 20, 2007 — People struggling to survive violence, forced displacement, and disease in the Central African Republic (CAR), Somalia, Sri Lanka, and elsewhere often went underreported in the news this year and much of the past decade, according to the 10th annual list of the “Top Ten” Most Underreported Humanitarian Stories, released today by the international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF).

Colombia is now in its fifth decade of conflict and more than three million people have been displaced by the violence fueled by the narcotics trade. People living in conflict zones where government military forces, paramilitary groups, and armed guerrillas from ELN and FARC fight for control are often cut off from basic health care services. A multi-media presentation illustrates how MSF provides medical and mental health care to uprooted families and isolated populations in Colombia's conflict zones.

In Colombia, more than three million people have been displaced by the violence fueled by the narcotics trade. People in conflict zones are often cut off from basic health care services and many have sought safety in the shantytowns springing up outside of Colombia's major cities. There, they endure appalling living conditions and limited access to care. Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) interim Head of Mission for Colombia Tony Tomasouw gives an update on the activities of MSF in the northern parts of Colombia.

Victor Garcia, former MSF Project coordinator in Norte de Santander department, Colombia

New York, January 9, 2007 — The staggering human toll taken by tuberculosis and malnutrition as well as the devastation caused by wars in the Central African Republic (CAR), Sri Lanka, and Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), are among the "Top Ten" Most Underreported Humanitarian Stories of 2006, according to the year-end list released today by the international humanitarian medical aid organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF). The ninth annual list also highlights the lack of media attention paid to the plight of people affected by the consequences of conflict in Haiti, Somalia, Colombia, Chechnya, and central India.

Amsterdam/Bogotá, February 9, 2006 - The two staff members of the international medical aid organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) who were detained by an armed group in the northeast of Colombia have been released.

Amsterdam/Bogotá, February 9, 2006 – Two staff members of the international medical aid organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) have been detained by an armed group in the northeast of Colombia. The staff members were part of a team exploring possibilities to expand health services to the population in Norte de Santander, a province isolated by violence.

Large numbers of people have been forced to Colombia's cities in search of new homes during the country's decades old civil war, and many of them now continue to live in cramped shacks on the outskirts of these cities with no electricity or clean drinking water.

By Brigg Reilley, M.P.H., and Silvia Morote, M.D.

In Colombia, urban violence is the first cause of death for men between 14 and 44 years of age. In Cali, the third largest Colombian city, an incredible 1,225 assassinations were registered in the first six months of 2004.