Internally displaced people (IDP) camps set up by the government and the military are mostly empty, as the overwhelming majority of the displaced are either staying with friends or relatives or in public buildings such as schools. Many people are still too afraid to return to their homes.
As displaced people return home to the Swat Valley and Buner district in northern Pakistan, MSF is stepping up its support to local health care providers in Mardan and Lower Dir districts in response to a sharp increase in cases of acute diarrhea.
Pakistan’s Mardan District, in North West Frontier Province, is trying to cope with an influx of more than one million people fleeing war in the region. MSF has increased the number of hospital wards in the Mardan Medical Complex and is supporting the nearby Takht Bhai Rural Health Center to help treat the growing number of patients.
Coming mainly from neighboring Swat, but also from the Maidan area in Lower Dir, more than 150 war-wounded have been treated since the end of April. At the same time, families from Maidan have been arriving in the two camps for displaced people where MSF is working.
A massive influx of wounded people is putting a severe strain on health services in Pakistan's North West Frontier Province. MSF is providing support in Mardan, Lower Dir, and Malakand.
The volatile situation in Pakistan’s North West Frontier Province (NWFP) continues to force more and more civilians to flee their homes. A total of 27 camps in six different districts have been set up to give temporary shelter, but many people remain trapped in the conflict areas, due to insecurity and strict curfews, prevented from gaining access to food, water and emergency medical care.
Islamabad/Brussels/New York, May 7, 2009 – The international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has had to halt its emergency medical services in the Swat region of Pakistan and reduce activities in other areas affected by the current warfare. The organization was the only one supporting the hospital in Mingora and providing ambulance services in Swat. The reduction of MSF’s activities is a result of the general insecurity, in addition to a number of direct incidents against MSF itself.
In Balochistan, Pakistan's largest and least developed province, most people have very limited access to health care. MSF supports a mother-and-child health care program in Kuchlak, a remote settlement outside the regional capital Quetta made up mostly of Afghan refugees. Here, the all-female staff in the delivery unit offer free and much needed obstetric services.
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.
Riaz Ahmad (24) and Nasar Ali (27) had left Mingora, the main town in Swat valley, in two ambulances to collect people injured during fighting in nearby Charbagh and bring them to the hospital for treatment. At around 3 pm local time their ambulances, clearly identified as medical vehicles, came under fire inside Charbagh and both were killed. A third volunteer worker for MSF was injured in the leg. The drivers escaped without injury.
The fighting between government forces and anti-government militants in the North West Frontier Province and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan has intensified throughout 2008. Air strikes by United States military in the area have also increased insecurity. In August, thousands of Pakistanis were displaced within the country or fled to neighboring Afghanistan for safety. At the same time, the Pakistani army also began expelling Afghan refugees, specifically in Bajaur Agency, for alleged connections to militant groups.
Massive forced civilian displacements, violence, and unmet medical needs in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Somalia, Iraq, Sudan, and Pakistan, along with neglected medical emergencies in Myanmar and Zimbabwe, are some of the worst humanitarian and medical emergencies in the world, the international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) reported today in its annual list of the “Top Ten” humanitarian crises.
On Wednesday, October 29, a Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) team reached Ziarat, in the Balochistan region of Pakistan, the area most severely affected by an earthquake. MSF immediately set up a 24-hour clinic to treat wounded—mainly cuts and bruises. The team dispatched blankets, cooking sets, jerry cans, tents and body bags from emergency supply stocks in Islamabad. A large aftershock occurred Wednesday evening, when many people were attending funerals to bury their dead.
In August, 200,000 people fled fighting in the tribal area of Bajaur Agency, in the northwestern region of the country. Fabien Schneider, head of mission for Doctors Without Borders Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) in Pakistan, describes the situation.
Early this morning, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières sent a team directly from the village Quetta to Ziarat in Balochistan, southwestern Pakistan, where reports are that this is the worst hit area. The region was hit by an earthquake measuring 6.2 on the Richter Scale.
When the violence started on December 23 in Kurram Agency, North West Frontier Province, Pakistan, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) assessed the situation and began responding to the needs of the population. This is the second time within a year that sectarian clashes have resulted in prolonged insecurity and casualties.
Since December 23, a sectarian clash has been underway in Kurram Agency, North West Frontier Province, Pakistan. Mortars have exploded within the vicinity of Alizai and Sadda hospitals, where the medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) provides assistance.
Since mid-July, cholera has emerged in various areas in Pakistan-administered Kashmir. Though the number of patients with cholera is decreasing in some areas, in other areas the number of infections is rising.
MSF medical teams have carried out more than 116,000 medical and mental health consultations since the earthquake that struck Pakistani- and Indian-administered Kashmir on October 8, 2005. In the aftermath, surgical teams performed more than 4,000 major and minor surgeries and provided physiotherapy for nearly 10,000 injured people.
Courtland Lewis, MD, an orthopedic surgeon from the University of Connecticut, spent three weeks in Mansehra, Pakistan, where he worked in the MSF field hospital, which is composed of nine inflatable tents.
After several weeks of dry weather, the start of severe winter weather brought sleet and icy rain to Muzaffarabad, Bagh, and Mansehra districts and up to five feet of snow at higher altitudes. Many roads were blocked by landslides and snow. In some places, road access will be difficult or impossible in the coming weeks and months.
MSF teams are providing primary health care in areas where Pakistani health facilities were severely damaged, and are following up on the situation in tented settlements where survivors have gathered.
Nick Lawson arrived two days after the devastating October 8 earthquake and supervised the set-up of MSF's medical and relief aid programs in the Northwest Frontier Province. With winter arriving, he offered an update on the situation people face and their need for continued assistance.
More than 120 international staff, including doctors, nurses, surgeons, psychologists, social workers, logisticians, water and sanitation experts, together with over 350 local staff, are involved with MSF's earthquake relief operations in Pakistan. The organization has already delivered more than 1,155 tons of relief goods to Pakistan.
More than 120 international staff, including doctors, nurses, surgeons, psychologists, social workers, logisticians, water and sanitation experts, together with over 350 local staff, are involved with MSF's earthquake relief operations in Pakistan.
Dr. Mercedes Tatay is the Emergency Programs Manager for MSF in Paris. She speaks about the magnitude of the devastation caused by the October 8 earthquake, describes the affected population's extreme vulnerability, and shares her concerns about a second wave of mortality.
Allison Male is a 36-year-old British psychologist. She arrived in Pakistani-administered Kashmir just days after the October 8 earthquake struck and her task is to provide psychosocial support to survivors of the disaster. She has also worked with MSF in Liberia and Burundi. This story is from her diary.
Temperatures are dropping and the first snowfalls have been recorded in mountain villages of the region affected by the earthquake. Therefore, the most urgent issue is still to provide shelter to thousands of homeless in remote villages before winter strikes.
Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) medical teams are treating hundreds of severely wounded people each day in 16 hard-hit locations in Pakistan-administered Kashmir and the country's North-West Frontier Province, and making all efforts to reach more remote villages every day.
Less than a week after the Asian earthquake of October 8, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) began to offer psychosocial care to traumatized survivors in northern Pakistan, the area worst hit by the disaster. Marise Denault, an MSF social worker and mental health specialist, explains the situation.
On October 10, two days after the earthquake that struck Kashmir, Dr. Jean-Francois Corty left for the devastated region to join a Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) exploratory mission to assess the MSF relief effort.
"From their eyes, you can see how disturbed the children are," says Silke Krmer, a surgeon with Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) in Muzaffarabad, Pakistan, one week after the earthquake. The German surgeon has been providing emergency aid here for four days now and has been distressed by the number of wounded children.
Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is increasing its aid operations to remote villages that have been cut off by landslides and buckled roads in Pakistani-administered Kashmir and the country's North Western Frontier Province. MSF is currently assisting thousands of people in 16 locations in Pakistan.
MSF medical teams are operating in both the Pakistani- and Indian-administered areas of Kashmir to assist victims of last Saturday's earthquake. Almost 80 international aid workers are working alongside dozens of national staff to provide medical assistance, mental health counseling, and relief and medical supplies to some of the hardest-hit areas.
Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) medical teams are operating in both the Pakistani- and Indian-administered areas of Kashmir to assist victims of last Saturday's earthquake. Almost 80 international aid workers will be working alongside dozens of national staff to provide medical assistance, mental health counseling, and relief and medical supplies to some of the hardest-hit areas.
"Immediately after the earthquake our team in India-controlled Kashmir set off to try and reach the most severely affected regions," says Hans van de Weerd, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) country coordinator in New Delhi, India. Both the Indian and the Pakistani regions of Kashmir were affected by last Saturday's earthquake. MSF is running a psychosocial program in the Indian region of Kashmir.
Four days after the South Asian earthquake struck on October 8, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) nurse Chrissie McVeigh flew by helicopter from Islamabad to the village of Lamnian in Pakistan-administered Kashmir. She describes her work in the area, which has been almost completely destroyed.
