Deane Marchbein, president of Doctors Without Borders, spoke about responding to crises in South Sudan, Libya and Haiti on the public radio program "Conversations with Allan Wolper."
As Libya grapples with restoring normality after the revolution, migrants, refugees, and internally displaced people remain in a vulnerable and precarious situation.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
The war in Libya is not only having an impact on Libyan nationals, but also on the 2.5 million migrants who have come there to work or live or are passing through to reach another destination.
John*, 15, his brother Matthew*, 3, and their mother left Libya on a boat headed for Italy when the war began. They lost their mother when the boat capsized.
Mouhaydin, 27, worked as a laborer and a cleaner in Libya before the war. He arrived at Shousha camp in March with his wife. She died on a boat to Europe in April.
Abdul, 23, spent four months in a desert prison in Libya before escaping to Shousha camp on the Tunisian border. Fearing insecurity in Shousha, he says he is ready to go back to Libya.
"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."
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.
“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.
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.
MSF today called on Italian authorities to drastically improve living conditions for refugees, asylum seekers, and migrants, particularly for the most vulnerable.
Since the popular uprisings and violent confrontations that have shaken the Arab world began in December 2010, some 27,000 refugees, asylum seekers, and undocumented migrants from North Africa have arrived by sea on the southern Italian island of Lampedusa.
MSF completed a medical evacuation of almost one hundred people by boat from Misrata, Libya to Tunisia on April 16. The majority of the patients had suffered war-related injuries.
On Sunday, MSF evacuated 71 patients by boat from the Libyan city of Misrata, where ongoing violence has overwhelmed medical facilities with the wounded.
"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."
Across North Africa and the Middle East, MSF has been supplying and assisting hospitals and health structures where medical staff face increased numbers of injured people.
After fighting forced MSF to pull out of Libya, emergency coordinator Simon Burroughs talks about the effort to get back into the country and the need for all parties to allow medical staff to work freely.
As conflict intensifies in Libya, MSF is extremely concerned for the wounded and calls for unhindered access to medical assistance, irrespective of political considerations.
As the fighting and bombardments intensify, MSF is supporting a lifeline of medical supplies running from Benghazi to other flashpoints where large numbers of wounded are being reported.
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.
MSF medical team inside Libya attempts to reach health facilities with high numbers of injured people, but additional MSF teams with urgently-needed medical supplies blocked from entering the country.
A six-person MSF team has crossed the border from Egypt into eastern Libya with a truckload of medicines and medical materials. For now, insecurity makes it impossible to bring urgently needed humanitarian aid to Tripoli.
As civil unrest leads to violent clashes in a number of countries in the Middle Eastern and Mediterranean regions, MSF emergency staff are helping to fill gaps in the medical services for people injured in the protests.
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.
