MSF's Stephen Cornish describes the devastating consequences of aerial bombardments, massive displacements and the collapse of the health system in Syria.
After her husband was killed by the violence plaguing eastern DRC, Victorine is living among other people displaced by the strife, facing a difficult future for herself and her four children.
MSF is delivering emergency medical care to displaced people in strife-plagued eastern DRC, including 5,000 seeking refuge in a stadium near Goma and many more in other setttlements.
After more than two years of raging conflict in Syria, humanitarian assistance inside the country and in neighboring states hosting Syrian refugees remains far below massive and growing needs.
Three months after a coup in CAR, and with malaria season approaching, MSF continues to scale up activities to assist thousands with no access to basic health care.
The war in Syria and an influx of refugees flowing into Tripoli have created a host of health needs and exacerbated complex and often violent communal dynamics in Lebanon's second-largest city.
Hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees in Jordan are living under increasingly precarious conditions and Jordanian authorities are unable to provide them with adequate water and health care.
Some 10,000 displaced Syrians now live in a transit camp near the border with Turkey, more than double the number that were there at the beginning of 2013.
Armed conflict has driven thousands of people out of the town of Pinga, in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, terrorizing the population and increasing the difficulty of providing urgently needed medical care.
MSF's Christopher Stokes and Audrey Landemann describe the catastrophic state of health care in Syria, where there is a lack of everything from qualified surgeons to medical supplies for chronic conditions.
MSF's Christopher Stokes describes how armed conflict has led to the collapse of Syria's medical system, leaving many Syrians without urgently needed treatment. The government and international community must remove obstacles to humantiarian aid, he said.
Half of Syria's hospitals are out of service, leaving wounded and chronically ill patients without basic care. MSF's Mego Terzian and Bruno Jochum describe the collapse of the Syrian health system.
MSF's Dr. Jose Bafoa explains how MSF is still trying to deliver care to as many people as possible in conflict-torn areas of Mali, particularly those who need malaria treatment.
Three weeks after military operations began in northern Mali, MSF continues to provide lifesaving treatment in the areas of Mopti, Gao, Ansango, Konna, Douentza, and Timbuktu.
With a hepatitis E epidemic escalating across refugee camps in South Sudan’s Maban County, MSF has treated 3,991 patients and recorded 88 deaths, including 15 pregnant women.
A flood of refugees is leaving Syria and an estimated 2 million Syrians are displaced inside the country. MSF is one of the few aid organizations helping people in rebel-held areas, and not enough aid is reaching them.
MSF said the United Nations and other actors need to provide more aid to people in rebel-held areas, who now receive only a small share of international help.
Amid growing insecurity in Syria's Aleppo region, all parties to the conflict must respect patients, medical staff, and health facilities, MSF said today.
Armed conflict is continuing in Sudan's South Kordofan and Blue Nile states, and approximately 200,000 refugees have fled to camps in South Sudan since 2011. These refugees face many health problems including malnutrition and respiratory tract infections, according to MSF's Silvia de Weerdt.
Thousands of people have been displaced and cut off from medical care after clashes between the national army and a local militia in Katanga province, southeastern Democratic Republic of Congo. Residents fear further violence, according to MSF's Anne Marie Loof.
MSF's Shinjiro Murata is interviewed on NPR's Talk of the Nation about responding to emergency and chronic medical needs in Syria's war-torn Aleppo province.
MSF is calling for medical and humanitarian access to the war-affected town of Konna in central Mali. The Malian military has closed all roads to Konna, according to MSF's Malik Allaouna.
MSF's Shinjiro Murata describes the aftermath of an airstrike in northern Syria that killed 20 people and wounded 99. MSF personnel are treating many of the survivors.
As the government of CAR attempts to implement a peace deal with rebel groups, MSF is expanding its emergency response for people affected by the conflict.
In the north of Syria's Idlib Province, civilians are terrorized by a strategy of intense and indiscriminate bombing and the wounded face few options for emergency medical care.
Local people displaced by conflict in Central African Republic are experiencing diseases related to a lack of shelter and clean water, according to MSF's Sylvain Groulx.
Civilians are fleeing their homes in Central African Republic as rebels advance toward the capital. MSF's Sylvain Groulx reports that the conflict is exacerbating health and humanitarian conditions that were already alarming.
Fighting has trapped tens of thousands of Syrians in the city of Deir al-Zor and there is urgent need for medical teams to be authorized to evacuate wounded people, according to an MSF team that visited the area in late November.
MSF's Grace Tang reports that the number of people in camps for the displaced has roughly doubled since the latest fighting broke out in North Kivu, Democratic Republic of Congo. MSF is treating patients for war injuries.
An already fragile situation in eastern DRC deteriorated further after Goma fell to a rebel group, hundreds were injured, and thousands more were displaced.
MSF's Colette Kerr and Nick Lawson speak about the challenges of reaching people in need in the midst of armed conflicts in a panel discussion on "Think Out Loud," an Oregon Public Broadcasting radio program.
Virginie Mathieu, MSF head of mission in Gaza and the Palestinian Territories, talks to France's Liberation newspaper about the situation in Gaza during this latest round of conflict.
Two MSF staff members and the program coordinator were able to enter the Gaza Strip on November 18; additional emergency response staff will be joining them in the coming days.
Dr. Martial Ledecq, a surgeon who recently completed a one-month mission in Syria with MSF, discusses his work and the notion of neutrality in a starkly divided country.
After fighting involving heavy weaponry flared in late July in DRC's North Kivu province, MSF treated 66 wounded people in Rutshuru, 62 of them women or children.
Wounded people and medical workers remain targeted and threatened in parts of Syria, preventing people from receiving life-saving emergency medical care.
Kirrily de Polnay, an MSF doctor working in South Sudan's Jamam refugee camps talks about the situation, the patients, and the nature of working in fast evolving emergency.
MSF is assisting Malian refugees driven from their homes by conflict and now seeking shelter in northern Burkina Faso, an area already struggling with resource shortages.
In tense and violence-plagued southern Yemen, MSF is continuously adapting its activities to ensure access to health care for wounded people and life-threatening cases.
Testimonies given by people who were injured or whose family members were injured, killed, or adbucted during attacks in South Sudan's Jonglei State in December 2011 and January 2012.
MSF continues to provide medical care and mental health assistance to migrants, internally displaced persons, and prisoners in the Libyan cities of Tripoli and Misrata.
A measles epidemic is spreading. The lack of infrastructure and services is worsening the population’s vulnerability. And civilians have endured new military offensives.
Unless the capacity to deliver aid is rapidly increased, it will be extremely difficult to meet the needs of Somalis fleeing to Ethiopia, MSF said today.
Despite the ostensible cessation of the fighting that wracked Ivory Coast earlier this year, violence against civilians has continued in some rural regions, particularly in the southwest. In mid-September, for instance, up to 16 people were killed and 50 homes were burned in an attack on the town of Zriglo.
Throughout the summer, waves of Somalis set out on desperate, arduous journeys, braving desert heat, hunger, and bandits to seek relief from a catastrophe remarkable even by the standards of this long-troubled country.
In this issue of Alert, we share news and images of our response to the ongoing crisis in Somalia, where MSF has spent the summer trying to expand its services to meet the latest emergency to befall the country’s people.
On May 26, a suicide bomber killed 36 people and wounded approximately 60 more near a police station in northwestern Pakistan’s Hangu district, just a few blocks from the hospital where MSF’s team lives and works.
In November 2010, Ivory Coast held elections during which President Laurent Gbagbo was defeated at the polls. Gbagbo refused to accept the results, leading to months of fierce fighting between his supporters and the supporters of the election’s winner, Alassana Outarra.
MSF treated dozens of people, the majority of them children, after a camp for dispalced Somalis in the Lower Juba region was hit with an aerial bombardment.
After heavy fighting erupted on October 20 in Daynile, on the outskirts of Mogadishu, MSF was forced to suspend its measles vaccination campaign in the area.
Disassociating itself from armed activities and related declarations following the abduction, MSF is engaging with all relevant actors to seek a safe resolution.
With conflict ongoing in northern Afghanistan, MSF opened a 55-bed surgical hospital in Kunduz Province, the only trauma center of its kind in this part of the country.
Though the number of people in Gaza suffering after-effects of serious injuries has increased in recent years, it remains very difficult to obtain access to appropriate, specialized care.
The hospital in Galcaayo North, which is partly supported by MSF, has treated 60 wounded, most of them civilians, while another 20 wounded were treated at an MSF-run hospital in the southern part of the city.
Some improvements are visible in Tripoli, but there's a sizable backlog of patients awaiting secondary surgery and signifcant numbers of migrants living in deplorable conditions.
More part of Tripoli are becoming accessible but the situation remains very tense, and MSF, which has expanded its teams and efforts in the capital, has witnessed some shocking scenes.
Over the past 48 hours, MSF has been continuing to assess medical facilities in Tripoli and has begun to provide medical support, while continuing to provide lifesaving support elsewhere in the country.
MSF Head of Mission Jonathan Whittall describes what he and the MSF team in Tripoli are seeing as the fighting intensifies and the number of wounded grows in the capital.
MSF treated more than 100 people, including many women and children who'd been shot, in the South Sudan town of Pieri following a brutal rampage in Jonglei State last week.
An interview with Hussein Sheikh Qassim is the Medical Activities Manager in the Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) hospital in Marere, southern Somalia.
Dr. Hussein Sheikh Qassim, MSF Medical Coordinator in Marere, southern Somalia, describes how violence and drought are driving people from their homes in search of care and shelter.
The United States government’s alleged misuse of a vaccination campaign in Pakistan for counter-terrorism purposes constitutes a dangerous abuse of medical care, MSF said today.
As fighting intensifies in Pakistan's Kurram Agency, displacing thousands, MSF is increasing its support to area hospitals and preparing to respond to new waves of wounded.
MSF is providing urgently-needed psychosocial counseling in North Kivu province, torture, forced labor, harassment, rape, armed attacks, killings and lootings are weekly, if not daily, realities.
Doctors and other hospital staff in Libya are highly dedicated, but there is a lack of inpatient capacity in all areas of care. MSF is helping to fill the gaps in surgery, obstetrics, and neonatal care.
"It was very much a teaching mission—it was the first time, I did this sort of teaching. In any other mission, you do the job on your own, but in Misrata, I was able to disseminate my knowledge."
Nenna Arnold, a community outreach nurse at the Dagahaley refugee camp in northeastern Kenya, cares for Somali refugees fleeing violence, insecurity, and a devastating drough.
Crowded into camps built to house 90,000 people that are now "home" to more than 300,000, Somali refugees in Dadaab, Kenya, urgently need additional assistance and more shelter.
MSF is expanding its assistance in Misrata, Benghazi, Zintan, in camps along the Libyan-Tunisian border, and on the Italian islands of Lampedusa and Sicily.
A May 26 suicide attack left 36 people dead and approximately 60 wounded in the city of Hangu, blocks from the hospital where MSF teams staff the emergency and surgery departments.
“The city center has been shelled every afternoon over the last few days, with several rockets landing just 100 to 200 meters from the hospital,” said Dr. Morten Rostrup of MSF.
With violence escalating in a refugee camp on the Tunisia-Libya border, MSF expressed alarm over the deteriorating living conditions encountered by refugees stranded in temporary camps.
MSF's Project Coordinator in the Pakistan district of Hangu talks about deliver emergency care in a conflict-riddled area where the medical needs are intense.
This letter was sent to Heads of State or Governments of Member States of the European Union, to Presidents of European Institutions, and to the offices of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, and the International Organisation for Migration.
In an open letter to EU leaders, MSF criticized contradictory policies whereby states claim to be executing a war to protect civilians in Libya while closing thier borders to the victims of that same war.
"We are working in a so-called 'safe zone,' which is actually not safe because many parts of the city are in range of the shelling," says MSF's Emergency Coordinator in Misrata.
"The fighters escorting the patients have now overrun the hospital. They are from the northern part of the country. They don't know us and they are better trained than the local militias, but they don't have any greater respect for us."
MSF is deeply concerned for the lives and health of civilians where violence continues to rage, and whose fear is keeping many of them from seeking critical medical care.
Fighting in Duékoué caused hundreds of deaths and widespread destruction. Many civilians sought refuge in a crowded camp and now they fear returning home.
MSF continues to assess the needs and provide medical and material support in health facilities in the East and West of Ivory Coast, and to assist refugees and host communities in Liberia.
As traffic resumes around the eastern Ivory Coast city of Abidjan—where people were previously trapped by post-election violence—wounded patients continue to arrive at Abobo Sud Hospital.
"There were so many patients, we had to stay in the hospital for two full days and nights. We operated around the clock, trying to stabilize the most serious cases."
Since a spike in violence hit the Duékoué area two weeks ago, the MSF surgical team has been treating 180 people with wounds caused by gunshots, hunting rifles, or machetes.
In Abidjan, movement continues to be severely restricted or impossible due to insecurity, which makes it extremely difficult for patients to reach hospitals and for medical staff to access patients.
A report released today by MSF illustrates how Bahrain’s hospitals and health centers are no longer safe havens for the sick or injured, but rather places to be feared.
On Sunday, MSF evacuated 71 patients by boat from the Libyan city of Misrata, where ongoing violence has overwhelmed medical facilities with the wounded.
Salha Issoufou, MSF’s Head of Mission in Abidjan, explains the difficulty teams are encountering when trying to treat patients in Abidjan and in the West of Ivory Coast.
MSF calls on the warring forces in Ivory Coast to ensure that people can reach medical facilities and to allow MSF medical teams to travel freely so they can provide care where it is needed.
"It was quite a rough journey, but the doctors and the nurses were fantastic. It was incredibly choppy; a lot of the patients were suffering from seasickness, and, at times, it was too rough to stand."
MSF has treated 21 wounded people in Agok, south of Abyei, and donated drugs and equipment to a hospital in Abyei town. Teams are discussing the provision of aid in the north with authorities.
Three medical facilities that MSF visited on Friday evening are facing shortages of medical materials and drugs; MSF will provide the supplies and continue making assessments.
In collaboration with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the country’s Ministry of Health, an MSF medical team admitted 33 wounded patients to the hospital in the town of Malakal on the morning of February 11.
One year after MSF returned to Afghanistan, Country Representative Michiel Hofman talks about choices, challenges, and the way forward for MSF in the country.
Despite the continuing tense situation, MSF counselors have restarted visiting patients in the hospitals in the capital, Srinagar, and are offering on-the-spot psychological assistance to victims of violence and their families.
Following deadly violence that took place in the Tabarat market in Tawila, North Darfur State, MSF provided urgent care to 46 wounded male patients, including one child.
Anja Wolz, MSF field coordinator in Osh, southern Kyrgyzstan, describes the current situation on the ground and how MSF is responding to people's needs.
New York, July 27, 2010—Victims of the on-going conflict in Colombia not only suffer from the direct consequences of violence caused by the conflict but also from social and institutional stigma and neglect, according to a report released today by the international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF).
In Zémio, a rural town in the southeast of the Central African Republic (CAR), MSF provides medical support to both the host population and those fleeing attacks by the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA).
In his memoir, Six Months in Sudan: A Young Doctor in a War-Torn Village, physician James Maskalyk recounts his first Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) assignment in Abyei, Southern Sudan. He and his team provided emergency medical care to the local population in this oil-rich region, which at the time was contentiously disputed. The book began as a popular MSF blog called Suddenly…Sudan.
The Photographer: Into War-Torn Afghanistan with Doctors Without Borders is a book that uses photographs, illustrations and text to tell the powerful story of clandestine operations Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) undertook to assist Afghan people after the 1979 Soviet invasion.
Attacks on the Gaza Strip by the Israeli army during three weeks in December 2008 and January 2009 made medical action extremely difficult. The vulnerability of civilians sparked humanitarian outrage and widespread criticism.
Some 900 people have been systematically murdered in a string of brutal attacks across northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) since the end of 2008. The attacks were carried out in the country’s Haut Uélé Province by the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), a rebel group active in Uganda and Sudan for over two decades.
On Sunday, February 1, MSF medical technicians, 24-year-old Riaz Ahmad and 27-year-old Nasar Ali, were shot and killed as they traveled in a clearly marked ambulance on their way to pick up civilians injured in fighting in the town of Charbagh, in Swat district, in the Northwestern region of Pakistan.
The conflict that began five years ago as a battle between Sudan’s government and two Darfuri rebel groups has developed into a far more complex disaster. While the large-scale, destructive attacks that marked the first few years of fighting are no longer frequent, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) sees a different kind of emergency developing. Continue Reading »
For 21 years, the south of Sudan was the country’s hotbed of conflict, until a peace agreement was signed in 2005. However, the emergency is far from over.
MSF recently published From Ethiopia to Chechnya: Reflections on Humanitarian Action, 1988-1999, a collection of essays from François Jean (1956-1999). “The Sudanese Conflict” is an excerpt from an interview Jean gave in 1993.
When violence aimed at foreign nationals broke out in Johannesburg and Cape Town, MSF provided medical assistance to people who sought refuge in police stations, community halls, and churches.
During the week of January 27, reports surfaced of rebel forces advancing on the Chadian capital, N’Djamena, to oust the president. In preparation, MSF quickly transferred its surgical staff.
After Kenya disintegrated into violence following the country’s disputed presidential election, MSF teams were forced to switch gears from specialized care for chronic diseases to treating machete wounds and running mobile clinics.
Doctors Without Borders is approved by the Internal Revenue Service as a 501 (C) (3) tax-exempt organization, and all donations are tax deductible to the extent provided by law. Doctors Without Borders Federal Identification Number (EIN) is 13-3433452.
