Ivory Coast

Recent examples from DRC and Liberia.

MSF has strengthened its treatment capacity in Taï and Duékoué hospitals in preparation for a possible influx of wounded patients. 

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.

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 medical teams are treating survivors of ongoing violence in southwestern Ivory Coast, including those affected by last week’s attack on the town of Zriglo, where up to sixteen civilians were killed and 50 houses burned.

Survivors of the violence in western Ivory Coast talk about their experiences and their hopes and fears for the future.

Many villages are still empty, their communities hiding in the bush, displaced in camps, or living as refugees in Liberia.

After hiding out in the forest for two weeks, this family from the Ivory Coast crossed the river that separates their troubled homeland from Liberia’s Nimba County, then paused before resuming a journey they hope leads to safety. Ivory Coast has been convulsed by months of post-election strife that has forced hundreds of thousands of people to seek sanctuary elsewhere.

Though it appears the worst of the fighting has passed, the consequences are still being felt in western Ivory Coast.

The post-election violence began to subside almost a month ago, but emergency medical needs remain at critical levels.

An MSF team working in Abidjan's Anyama Hospital since April 18 is seeing more than 120 patients and assisting with 10 births every day.

MSF has vastly expanded Abidjan's Abobo Sud hospital, which remains filled to capacity even as post-election violence lessens in Ivory Coast.

"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.

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.

Many wounded people suffering from gunshot or machete wounds have arrived in hospitals in the western towns of Danané, Man, and Bangolo.

MSF Field Coordinator Henry Gray gave this report while in lock-down due to security issues in an area of Abidjan.

Carole Coeur, an MSF field coordinator in western Ivory Coast, describes what MSF staff in the area have been seeing at a time of increasing violence and insecurity.

MSF surgeon Cristiana Bertocchi recounts her time performing surgeries in the only functioning hospital in northern Abidjan during a period of intense fighting.

Paris/Brussels, March 31, 2011—New outbreaks of fighting in Ivory Coast are severely restricting already-limited civilian access to medical care, the international medical humanitarian organization Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) said today.

MSF Field Coordinator, Carole Coeur, in western Ivory Coast, did an interview on CNN International on Sunday, March 27, 2011.  She discussed the situation in the western part of the country where intense fighting is taking place and health staff is fleeing.

Ivory Coast is experiencing a new spiral of violence that is endangering populations’ access to medical care.

On March 17, MSF teams working with Ivory Coast’s Ministry of Health treated 66 wounded following violent attacks in a densely-populated Abidjan neighborhood.

Increasingly intense armed confrontations and political gridlock in Ivory Coast have had serious consequences on its population, MSF said today.

MSF expresses concern over the deteriorating situation in the Ivory Coast and the border region with Liberia, and seeks to assist refugees and internally displaced people fleeing escalating violence.

As post-election violence continues to escalate in Ivory Coast, MSF is reinforcing its medical assistance in several locations.

Since last December, tens of thousands of people have fled post-election violence in Ivory Coast and sought refuge across the country’s border with Liberia.

MSF has been monitoring the refugee situation along the border tand providing free primary health care at mobile clinics.

Clashes that erupted in Duékoué in western Ivory Coast on Monday, January 3, resulted in many injured and more than 12,000 displaced persons

The 'zone of confidence' (zone de confiance) in Ivory Coast does not live up to its name. Created as a buffer between warring parties, it has turned into one of the most unsafe parts of the country. On June 28, the team working for MSF in the zone saw this illustrated once again, when they received 12 wounded people in Bangolo Hospital. Eleven of these patients sustained serious injuries requiring referral to the MSF-supported hospital in Man, outside the contested area. Only two months before, five people had been killed and ten injured in a similar bout of fighting.

In addition to ongoing activities in the north and west of the country, MSF has donated medical and surgical equipment to hospitals in Abidjan to help treat people wounded during the past week's violence. An MSF cargo of eight additional tons of emergency relief materials, including medical and surgical items, arrived today in Ivory Coast.

The situation remains very tense in Abidjan, the Ivory Coast, following the violence of the past week.

Abidjan, November 5, 2004 - The international humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is extremely concerned about the impact on civilians of the government offensive launched yesterday (Nov 4) on the city of Bouake in the New Forces-controlled zone of the Ivory Coast.

With a 1,500-person capacity, MACA prison in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, is perpetually overcrowded, averaging 5,400 detainees. The horrendous conditions give rise to cholera epidemics and tuberculosis.

MSF volunteer surgeon Bruce Frank, MD didn't really feel he was in a war-zone when he first arrived in Ivory Coast in mid-December.