MSF helped provide urgent medical care at El Seraif hospital to 121 wounded people, including two children, following recent violence in Jebel Amir, North Darfur state.
MSF's Andre Heller speaks on the Denver-based public radio program Colorado Matters about his work with tens of thousands of Sudanese refugees in Yida camp, South Sudan.
MSF programs are run by "desks" in different headquarters offices around the world. Gwenola Francois, MSF-USA deputy program manager, talks about MSF-USA’s portfolio and the priorities for the year ahead.
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.
MSF has been assisting refugees in South Sudan since November 2011, running field hospitals and providing supplies of clean drinking water and oral rehydration fluids.
In this interview, André Heller, MSF head of mission in South Sudan, discusses MSF's activities in Yida camp, where MSF has reduced the mortality rate of refugees fleeing conflict and food insecurity in Sudan.
BBC reports from the refugee camps in South Sudan's Maban County, where more than 100,000 Sudanese men, women, and children are seeking sanctuary after fleeing their homeland.
Vanessa Cramond, medical coordinator for MSF in South Sudan's Maban County, describes the dire situation of some 35,000 refugees who have crossed the border from Sudan.
More than 100,000 people who have fled violence in Sudan’s Blue Nile State are struggling to survive in an inhospitable stretch of land in South Sudan.
These first-hand accounts describe the situation for tens of thousands of refugees who fled fighting in Sudan and now face a full-blown humanitarian crisis as they seek refuge in already-overcrowded camps in South Sudan.
Tens of thousands of refugees fleeing fighting in Sudan are facing a full-blown humanitarian crisis as they seek refuge in already-overcrowded camps in South Sudan.
Tens of thousands of refugees who have fled fighting in Sudan to seek safety in neighboring South Sudan are in desperate need of humanitarian assistance.
Increasing restrictions imposed by Sudanese authorities have forced MSF to suspend most of its medical activities in the Jebel Si region of North Darfur State in Sudan.
Tensions and hostilities continue unabated between South Sudan and its northern neighbor, Sudan, and MSF is therefore scaling up its emergency response.
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 providing medical assistance to refugees who left Sudan and have been living in two towns in South Sudan since the country gained independence last July.
This past January, the people of southern Sudan voted overwhelmingly for independence, and in July the world will see the birth of a new country. It will be a country that faces enormous challenges—not least the urgent medical and humanitarian needs of millions of people.
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.
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.
Renewed fighting between government forces and opposition groups in North Darfur state over the last two months has forced thousands of families to flee from their villages.
"The kala azar treatment is very hard. While on kala azar medicines, Deng became very sick with jaundice. He had to receive a blood transfusion from his uncle, which did help him."
As southern Sudan heads towards a January 9, 2010, referendum on secession, it is battling to contain the biggest kala azar outbreak in the region in eight years.
In 2010, MSF responded to medical emergencies and provided nutritional support, reproductive healthcare, kala azar treatment, counseling services, surgery, and pediatric and obstetric care.
"We found that two factors were irregular this year. First, it was highly unusual that cases would begin as early as July. This is seven weeks earlier than last year. Secondly, the high number of cases..."
For the communities of Port Sudan, discussions on reproductive health were often taboo. But with community members taking a leading role in health promotion, things are changing.
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.
MSF has set up an additional base in Pagil, in Jonglei State, Southern Sudan, to deal with an alarming increase in the number of patients infected with kala azar—or visceral leishmaniasis.
After three separate security incidents forced the suspension of MSF's activites in Gumuruk, in Jonglei State, MSF calls on all parties to respect the neutraility of its medical activities and facilities.
Following a series of cattle raids that started on June 27 near Lekwongole in Jonglei State, MSF treated five male patients for violent trauma wounds, between the ages of two and 30.
Taking advantage of improved security, MSF has renovated and opened a new hospital in North Darfur, giving the area's inhabitants much greater access to healthcare services.
Fred de Sam Lazaro reports on the humanitarian crisis in the African nation of Sudan, where drought and food shortages are contributing to violence, political instability and death.
Staff members are mostly from Darfur, and have felt the impact of the conflict in their daily lives. Both they and the patients they tend to have experienced immense loss, yet they carry on with dignity and give generously to one another.
Following the expulsion of the Dutch and French sections of MSF by the Sudanese government in March 2009, three MSF sections continue working in Northern Sudan, in the western region of Darfur, Al-Gedaref State, and the Red Sea State.
This year, MSF has witnessed a worrying deterioration in the situation in the semi-autonomous region of Southern Sudan, with severe medical humanitarian implications for the population.
MSF is responding to outbreaks of kala azar—a severe parasitic disease—in Southern Sudan. The emergency is in several locations across the eastern part of the region, and MSF is treating patients in its clinics in Pibor and Lankien, both in Jonglei State, and using mobile teams in Rom, in Upper Nile State, to actively trace patients.
Violent clashes over water sources near Shangil Tobaya, a town in North Darfur, Sudan, have caused a number of casualties and the displacement of more than 3000 people. Since October 20, Doctors Without Borders/Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) has provided medical care to 12 wounded people and referred nine to the Al-Fashir Teaching Hospital. All nine patients are in stable condition.
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.
On Sunday, September 20, yet another violent clash broke out in Duk Patdiet, Jonglei State, in Southern Sudan. This is part of an escalating wave of violence in the region that has been ongoing since the beginning of the year.
With photography and video by photojournalist Brendan Bannon, MSF brings you the underreported story of hundreds of thousands of Congolese who are fleeing the violent attacks of Ugandan rebel group the Lord's Resistant Army (LRA).
Attacks on villages by the Lord's Resistance Army have displaced hundreds of thousands of people. Many of the rebel group's victims have been abducted, raped or killed. Tens of thousands of survivors have taken refuge in Southern Sudan, including one 16-year-old boy.
Over the past weeks, civilians have continued to suffer from violent attacks in several areas of northern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Southern Sudan. Ugandan rebels of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) have been perpetrating acts of extreme violence on the populations in both countries. This violence was further exacerbated by the operations conducted against the LRA by national armies in the region. Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) teams have been providing assistance to the displaced and resident populations by offering free health care and psychosocial support, and by improving living conditions.
On July 14, a seven-year-old boy was on his way back from school when he saw a shiny metal object sticking up out of the soil. As he attempted to pull the object from the soil, it exploded.
Emmanuel Guibert, illustrator of The Photographer, and Juliette Fournot, MSF former head of mission in Afghanistan, were featured on NPR's 'All Things Considered' program.
MSF doctor James Maskalyk recounts his six months in Abyei, Sudan, caring for noncombatants trapped in a civil war, first in a popular blog and now in this moving photography book.
In the northeast of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and in the south of neighboring Sudan, Ugandan rebels from the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) have been perpetrating acts of extreme violence on civilians in response to operations conducted against them by national armies of the DRC, Uganda, and southern Sudan.
MSF provides care to hundreds of thousands of people in six states in Southern Sudan. In recent months, increasing violence and insecurity caused mostly by fighting between different tribes, as well as heightened tensions around disarmament initiatives, criminality in the regional capital, Juba, and road banditry has made it more difficult for MSF field teams to reach people in need of aid.
Dr. James Maskalyk, author of "Six Months in Sudan", recounts his work with MSF in Sudan, treating malnourished patients and fended off a measles epidemic with limited resources.
MSF has been forced to make the decision to temporarily evacuate its team, as the insecurity in and around the town has reached dangerous levels. MSF is the only healthcare provider in Pibor town.
On Friday, May 8, an attack on the village of Torkej in Upper Nile State in Southern Sudan, located on the border with Jonglei State, resulted in the arrival of many war wounded to a Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) hospital in Nasir. Patients reported that many people were dead in the village and that thousands were forced to flee. Torkej is approximately 20 kilometers (12 miles) from Nasir, where MSF runs a hospital providing basic health care and surgical care.
Following recent outbreaks of violence between rival ethnic groups in Jonglei State, Southern Sudan, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) teams are treating wounded from each side, assisting those who fled their villages, and treating malnutrition and cholera.
MSF remains fully committed to providing impartial medical assistance to the people of Sudan. Consequently, MSF is currently engaging in direct discussions with the Sudanese authorities in order to continue to deliver emergency medical aid in Darfur and elsewhere in northern Sudan.
Khartoum/Brussels/New York, March 14, 2009 – Four Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) staff kidnapped on March 11 in Serif Umra, North Darfur, Sudan, were safely released today, March 14, 2009.
MSF confirms that we managed to speak again to our colleagues, abducted on Wednesday March 11 from Serif Umra, North Darfur, Sudan. MSF confirms that they are in good health and cannot comment further about this.
MSF confirms reports that three of its international staff were abducted last night in Serif Umra, in the Sudanese province of North Darfur. Two of MSF's Sudanese staff were taken at the same time; however, they have since been released.
Southern Sudan is a region synonymous with war, famine and displacement of people. Its people have been shattered by more than 20 years of conflict. Four years after the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) which ended the war between the government in Khartoum and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement, southern Sudan’s population still faces ongoing violence, disease outbreaks, starvation, and virtually non-existent access to health care in many areas. These people’s struggles and triumphs are never clearer than in the stories of their women.
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.
The expulsion of foreign aid groups from Sudan's Darfur region amid a meningitis outbreak in some refugee camps could dramatically push up mortality rates, says an MSF aid worker forced to leave the country.
Geneva/Paris/Khartoum/New York, March 5, 2009 – Sudanese authorities in Khartoum this morning demanded the immediate expulsion of a second section of the international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) from Darfur.
The Government of Sudan has told Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) it must remove all international staff from a number of projects in West and South Darfur by Wednesday, March 4, 2009.
Nairobi/Khartoum/Amsterdam/New York, March 4, 2009 – The Government of Sudan today informed the Dutch section of the international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) that they are expelled from Darfur. This follows a previous order issued March 2 for MSF to remove all international staff from a number of project sites in Darfur. The organization is outraged at the decision, which leaves more than 200,000 of its patients without essential medical care.
An MSF team has returned to Muhajariya in South Darfur where an estimated 35,000 people have been affected by heavy fighting. The team had been forced to leave for four weeks.
Following heavy fighting in Muhajariya, South Darfur, on January 15, MSF temporarily relocated most of its medical team to Nyala, the regional capital, about 80 km (50 miles) away. The team learned that the MSF base in Muhajariya was completely destroyed by fire, however, the MSF clinic remains functional.
Sudan continued to be wracked by two major humanitarian emergencies in 2008—the crisis in Darfur and the consequences of decades of civil war in the south.
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.
At the instruction of the Sudanese Humanitarian Aid Commission and the Federal Ministry of Health, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) must close the mental health counseling component of its activities in South Darfur.
At least 65 patients who were wounded in shooting early this morning in Kalma camp, one of the largest camps for displaced people in Darfur, Sudan, have been admitted to the MSF clinic there.
Khartoum/Barcelona, August 1, 2008 — The international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has been forced to evacuate its staff from Tawila and Shangil Tobaya in North Darfur, after a series of violent assaults against MSF staff.
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.
MSF nurse practitioner Deborah Van Dyke helped run a medical program in the remote village of Pibor. Here she describes the experiences that affected her the most.
Malnutrition is the most acute problem for the displaced population from Abyei and its surroundings. Before the fighting began, malnutrition rates were above 50 percent, based on screenings carried out in the hospital in Abyei.
The fighting that erupted in Abyei on May 14 has forced nearly 50,000 people to flee. They are now scattered around the area with little access to food, shelter, or water.
Chris Sauer, a fire chief in the Lake Tahoe area of California, has been on five assignments with MSF since 1998, most recently in Tawila in North Darfur. Sauer served as interim project coordinator from February to March 2008. Here, he describes his experience.
Geneva/Khartoum/Juba/New York, May 22, 2008 — Since May 14, fighting between the Sudanese armed forces and the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) has devastated the town of Abyei, which has been virtually destroyed. Almost the entire local population has fled to the north and south of the town to seek refuge.
In Northern Bahr el Ghazal, families returning to southern Sudan after the end of a 21-year-civil war face innumerable hardships, including a lack of food and continued violence.
In southern Sudan, thousands of families displaced by the recent armed conflict in the oil-rich region of Abyei are in need of emergency assistance. This is occurring in a region where resources are already extremely depleted.
More than three years after the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) in January 2005, medical needs remain critical, and simmering tensions create a precarious security situation. This report focuses on the areas of Greater Upper Nile, including Unity, northern Jonglei and Upper Nile States. Although extrapolations to other areas must be done with caution, the health situation in Greater Upper Nile can be considered representative of many of the war-devastated communities in southern Sudan.
Stuck in a highly volatile security context, Sudanese refugees who have recently arrived just over the border in Birak, Chad, are in an extremely worrying situation. With ongoing combat a few kilometers away from their settlement, the lives of the refugees and those who remain in targeted areas in Darfur, are still at risk.
Geneva/Birak, Chad, February 13, 2008 – From February 8-10, the Sudanese army, assisted by militias, launched a large offensive in northwest Darfur. This military offensive, one of the most violent over the past few years, resulted in an immediate population displacement and the forced interruption of all medical activities in Seleia, where Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) had been running a health center since 2006.
From sleeping sickness to cholera and malnutrition, MSF continues to respond to emergencies throughout Bahr-el-Ghazal, Jonglei, Western Equatoria, Unity, and Upper Nile states. MSF remains one of the largest health-care providers in the region. MSF has worked in southern Sudan since 1983. In 2007, 137 international staff and 1,359 Sudanese staff were employed and MSF spent 19.76 million euros providing medical care in the region.
It is with great sadness that we announce the death of our much respected Sudanese colleague James Agut. James was among four people who were beaten to death in the Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) compound in Bor, South Sudan, while trying to escape violent clashes that had erupted inside the hospital. His father is also among the dead.
Juba/Brussels, November 29, 2007 — Four people were murdered and one injured inside a car of the medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) in Bor, South Sudan. Eight people, patients and members of their families, including a baby, had been evacuated from the hospital when tribal fighting broke out inside the facility. They were inside the MSF car in the organization's compound across the road from the hospital when they were attacked by people pursuing them. Two adults and the baby escaped unharmed by hiding under the car's benches.
As peace talks get underway in Libya, international attention will be focused once again on Darfur. Four years on the conflict continues. The fighting may be less intense than it was in 2003-2004, but it has become increasingly complex.
The town of Muhajariya in Darfur, Sudan, was attacked by armed groups on October 8 and October 9, forcing the evacuation of Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) international staff. More than 35,000 people living in Muhajariya and its immediate vicinity have been directly affected by these attacks and are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance.
The international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) evacuated a team of 16 aid workers from Muhajariya in South Darfur, Sudan following an intense attack on the town.
Vanessa van Schoor worked for 13 months as Head of Mission for Doctors Without Borders'/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) project in Darfur, overseeing security, solving staff and supply issues, and balancing medical work with communication of the injustices witnessed by MSF teams. Here she talks about the risks that humanitarian aid workers face in Darfur and why the intense effort to help must continue.
Dr. Christophe Fournier, MSF's International Council president, recently returned from an assessment mission to Darfur, Sudan, and describes the humanitarian situation there as well as the work and the challenges faced by MSF.
MSF has been quick to respond to meningitis epidemics in several countries in Africa's "meningitis belt." In the four countries–Burkina Faso, Sudan, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC-where the epidemic threshold has been reached MSF's first response was to evaluate the outbreak, identify the strain of meningitis, and treat people infected with the disease.
MSF teams are working in 22 locations across the three states of Sudan's western Darfur region. They are providing emergency medical care and relief supplies to several hundred thousand displaced people.
MSF began a meningitis vaccination campaign in Juba, the capital of southern Sudan, on March 14, vaccinating the population at risk in three health zones in the capital city. Approximately 160,000 people between the ages of 2 and 30 will be vaccinated. Below is a synopsis of the second day of vaccinations, March 15, from one of the 12 sites.
Presentation by Fabrice Weissman, MSF Foundation and former Head of Mission for MSF in Darfur, Sudan to Panel Discussion at Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs
Philip Humphris is Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières' (MSF) head of mission for West Darfur state in Sudan. He has returned from western Darfur and, as the number of aid agencies in Darfur continues to decrease, explains what MSF is doing in this region.
New York, January 29, 2007 – Since late December 2006, new attacks in west Darfur, Sudan, have destroyed several villages and have led to the displacement of thousands of people. Displaced persons have found refuge in Ardamata and Dorti camps, situated on the outskirts of El Geneina, the capital of west Darfur, while other people remain blocked further north in Tanjeke.
Over the past two months in southern Darfur, villages have been burned, civilians shot, and water sources and food stocks destroyed, causing at least 50,000 civilians to flee their homes.
Khartoum/New York, November 16, 2006 — Against the backdrop of a peace agreement that has resulted in mounting confrontations, the situation for people throughout Darfur, Sudan continues to worsen, according to the international medical aid organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF). Acts of violence committed by all armed groups against civilians and aid workers are increasing, and many people have been forced to flee their homes. Intensifying violence is preventing aid from reaching people who are enduring increasing attacks in the Jebel Moon region, north of West Darfur's capital El Geneina. Although on a smaller scale than the violence directed against civilians here in 2003, recent attacks have caused thousands of civilians to flee their homes.
In the areas held by the Sudanese government, attacks by bandits/militias on MSF and other relief agencies have intensified in frequency and brutality.
Around 90, 000 displaced live in the four camps surrounding Zalingei. The makeshift shelters have been their homes since conflict broke out in Darfur early 2003. There have been no distributions of shelter materials for more than 18 months and their wood, earth and tarpaulin homes look bedraggled.
Dr. Rowan Gillies, International Council President of MSF, returned to the Darfur region of Sudan in October, more than two years after he worked there as a field doctor. He describes the current situation there and discusses the potential implications of humanitarian aid organizations calling for armed intervention in the region.
"I returned to Darfur this October, having worked there in July 2004 when few aid agencies were operational and there was a crisis requiring a massive and urgent increase in assistance. Fighting was going on then but it was possible to rapidly expand the aid effort. Today things are very different," writes Dr. Rowan Gillies, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) International Council President, on the situation in Darfur, Sudan.
In Darfur, two million people are still living in displaced persons' camps. While the health situation may be acceptable, living conditions are very precarious. In addition, the security situation has been worsening in the region for several months, making it impossible to gain access to certain populations in Northern and Central Darfur. Attacks against humanitarian organizations are hampering aid efforts.
Increased insecurity in the troubled Sudanese region of Darfur, combined with decreased international aid, is adding to the misery of the population there. Access to those in need is at an all time low, while disease and violence remain a daily fact of life for the millions who have been displaced since the beginning of the conflict in 2003. Today, most are entirely reliant on the dwindling external humanitarian aid, and the threat of full-scale war is once again looming.
Eight people —including a child under five— have died from cholera in Mornay, western Darfur, in the last two weeks. The Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) team has already treated more than 60 patients. This tragic situation occurred after various aid agencies withdrew assistance to people living in the Darfur displaced persons' camps.
The situation is worsening in Darfur, the western Sudan region where a conflict began in 2003. Renewed violence has led to reduced assistance to people in the area. Dr. Denis Lemasson, MSF program director, has just returned from Sudan with a disturbing report.
Khartoum, Sudan/New York, AUgust 3, 2006 – Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) demands that the provision of medical care be allowed and respected in the conflict areas of Darfur, Sudan. Many MSF activities are currently suspended in Darfur, leaving thousands of patients untreated everyday.
More than three years after the start of the violence, MSF is maintaining its largest aid effort worldwide. MSF has posted more than 2,500 staff in 30 locations across the three states of Darfur in an effort to meet some of the vast medical needs. MSF is also assisting Sudanese refugees who crossed into neighboring Chad. Michael Neuman, program officer for the US section of MSF, describes the evolving humanitarian situation in the region and the difficulties of carrying out humanitarian operations there.
West Darfur, Sudan/New York, June 16, 2006 – More than 10,000 people have fled violence in southeastern Chad and have crossed the border to take refuge in Darfur, Sudan, according to the international humanitarian aid agency Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF).
Amsterdam, May 23, 2005 – An upsurge of violence has led to displacement, injury, and the death of civilians in the Upper Nile and Jonglei provinces of southern Sudan. According to the international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), clashes between armed groups and direct attacks on villages have occurred in the region north and south of the Sobat River since the beginning of April. The deteriorating security situation has also forced MSF to evacuate a number of its international teams from the area.
Paris, May 22, 2006 – The international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is concerned about the impact of the World Food Program's (WFP) reduction of rations to displaced populations in the Darfur region of Sudan. On April 28, 2006, the WFP announced that because of inadequate funds it could supply only a half-ration of vital foods–1,050 kilocalories per person per day instead of 2,100–to the 2.1 million people who need emergency food aid in Darfur.
Nearly two million people are dependant on World Food Program (WFP) food distributions in order to survive in displaced persons camps in Darfur. The announcement of a reduction by half of the survival rations provided by WFP leads Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) to be afraid of a serious nutritional crisis.
Dr. Jean-Paul Delain, a 53-year-old pulmonary specialist from Avignon, France, arrived in the village of Akuem, in Sudan's Bahr el Ghazal State, at the end of March to evaluate whether the area was in the midst of a meningitis outbreak.
MSF has treated more than 500 people suffering from cholera in Malakal, a port town on the Nile river. This city, home to 125,000 people, is one of the three biggest cities in southern Sudan.
Since late January, people have been streaming from Chad into Sudan's western region of Darfur, which is still gripped by violence and instability. More than 7,000 people fleeing violence and looting in Chad have taken refuge in a small village north of El Geneina, the capital of western Darfur. In this area neglected by aid organizations, MSF is providing them with assistance.
Barcelona, February 22, 2006 - Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has started an emergency intervention in southern Sudan in response to a severe cholera outbreak in Juba town. The first suspected cases in the region were reported at the end of January in the town of Yei, southwest of Juba. Since then the disease has spread quickly. On February 6, the first suspected case was identified in Juba. The cholera outbreak was confirmed a few days later. After 15 days, by February 21st, 1,864 cases and 45 deaths recorded.
The region to the east of Chad–on the border with Sudan–is undergoing a period of sustained instability. In December, clashes between government forces and Chadian rebel groups broke out in and around the city of Adre. Since then regular attacks by the Chad rebels or armed fighters have targeted villages on both sides.
In western Darfur, Sudan, the violent confrontations of 2004 have given way to a situation of chronic instability characterized by persistent violence affecting all those living in the province. Dr. Pauline Horrill, MSF's program manager for Sudan, and Fabrice Weissman, head of MSF's projects in West Darfur, offer an update.
To halt a yellow fever epidemic in central Sudan's Kordofan province, medical teams from MSF, working with Sudanese health officials, led a mass vaccination campaign in Abu Gebeiha and Rashad, two of the province's largest towns.
Gabriel Trujillo, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières' (MSF) program manager in Sudan, has returned from Darfur in September. In the western part of the province where MSF is working, displaced people continue to live without any sense of security and are still affected by ongoing violence and tensions.
New York/Geneva, August 3, 2005 – The international humanitarian aid organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) continues to treat victims of violence in all locations where it is present in Darfur.
Statement by Dr. Nathalie Civet, Head of Mission in Sudan for Médecins sans Frontières (MSF)
delivered to the United Nations Security Council "Arria Formula" meeting
Geneva/Paris, July 19, 2005 – Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) teams in several areas of Bahr-El-Gazal province in southern Sudan, are treating a growing number of children suffering from severe malnutrition.
In 2005, after 21 years of war, a peace deal was struck between the Sudanese government and rebel groups operating in the south of the country. But for thousands of people in the southern Bahr El Ghazal region, violence and starvation remain a daily concern.
Khartoum/Amsterdam, June 20, 2005 – The international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) welcomes the dropping of all charges against Paul Foreman, its head of mission in Sudan, and Vincent Hoedt, its regional coordinator in Darfur.
Khartoum/Amsterdam, May 31, 2005 - The international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) expresses its outrage about the arrest of a second representative in Sudan this morning. Vincent Hoedt, a Dutch national and regional coordinator for MSF in Darfur, was arrested this morning in Nyala.
Khartoum/Amsterdam, May 30, 2005 – The international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) confirms the arrest of its Head of Mission Paul Foreman, a British national, in Khartoum, Sudan. MSF's Head of Mission has been charged with crimes against the state. MSF is being accused of publishing false reports, undermining society in Sudan, and spying. MSF is outraged by the charges and rejects any notion that the report is false. Paul Foreman has been released on bail early this evening, but is not allowed to leave the country.
Since early 2003, the people of Darfur have endured a vicious campaign of violence, which has forced almost 2 million people to flee from their destroyed villages in search of safety. Rape against women, children, and men has sadly been a constant factor in this violence throughout this campaign of terror. More tragically, it continues to this day even long after people have fled from their villages. The stories of rape survivors give a horrific illustration of the daily reality of people in Darfur and especially of women and young girls, the primary victims of this form of violence. It has to stop.
Amsterdam, 7 March 2005 - Women and girls in war-ravaged Darfur are continuing to suffer a high incidence of rape and sexual violence, according to a report issued today by Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF). Stories of rape survivors told to MSF are a horrific illustration of the daily reality of the ongoing violence that has displaced almost two million people in Darfur.
MSF nurse Rakel Ludviksen and her colleague Jean Pierre Amigo spent November in the Jebel Si mountains, an extremely remote region of North Darfur, Sudan.
Amsterdam, December 22, 2004 – International medical relief organization Doctors Without Borders/Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) is shocked by the murder of one of its Sudanese aid workers in South Darfur. According to reliable reports the aid worker was killed last Friday, December 17, during an attack led by government troops on Labado in South Darfur. The man was shot dead in front of the MSF warehouse in Labado town while off duty. “We are not able to verify the death of our staff, because it is not yet secure to send a team. Other national staff members that were present in the town are still missing. MSF employs 38 national staff in Labado of whom 29 are still unaccounted for today,” says MSF emergency coordinator Ton Koene.
Khartoum, December 1, 2004 - Two thousand civilians were yesterday forced to flee the village of Saraf Ayat in North Darfur, following the latest in a series of attacks in the region. Many of those caught up in yesterday's attack had already been forcibly displaced from their original home villages several days previously and were seeking refuge in Saraf Ayat at the time. A Doctors Without Borders/Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) team was providing medical care to people sheltering in school buildings when the attack occurred at around 2 pm yesterday afternoon.
By December 2004, 197 international volunteers and 2,582 national staff for Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) were providing emergency assistance in 27 locations in Darfur in areas with more than 600,000 displaced people.
For several weeks, Dr. Kai Braker was the medical coordinator for the two camps in Forchana and Breidjing. He speaks about the after-effects of displacement and the wounds that will not heal.
There is a war in the West of Sudan, with two rebel movements (the Sudanese Liberation Army (SLA) and Justice and Equality Movement (JEM)) having launched an insurgency against the rule of Khartoum.
Matthias Hrubey, MD, is a general practitioner who runs the MSF primary health clinic in Kass, a town whose population has swelled to an estimated 77,000 with the influx of approximately 48,000 people displaced by violence in the region.
New York, September 27, 2004 - Epidemiological surveys newly completed by Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) in South Darfur, Sudan, reveal that the overall level and quality of aid remains insufficient. In Kalma camp near Nyala, where an estimated 66,000 people fleeing violence have sought shelter and where MSF is treating 3,900 malnourished children, the survey found malnutrition and mortality rates well above emergency levels. MSF warns that without increased mobilization of aid to South Darfur, the health and nutritional situations in the region could deteriorate further.
While working in their clinics and feeding centers in Sudan's western Darfur region, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) volunteers regularly come across women and girls who have been raped or sexually assaulted.
Today in Darfur, 206 international volunteers and thousands of national staff for Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) are providing emergency assistance in 26 locations where 700,000 displaced people have sought refuge.
After providing emergency assistance to displaced people in Darfur for several months, medical teams from Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) have seen its significant effect on people living in the camps, particularly in West Darfur.
The province of North Darfur, Sudan, is being affected by increasing violence and tension since late August. The immediate consequence has been the arrival of 2,000 displaced people to Zam Zam camp, south of El Fasher, over the last few days.
Jason Wong, MD, a family physician from Seattle, Washington, recently returned from a three-month medical mission in Darfur, a region in western Sudan where more than a million people have been displaced by war.
Twice a week, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) volunteers travel to Deleig, a small village in the western part of the Darfur region of Sudan. As of late-July some 20,000 internally displaced people (IDPs) live there.
MSF has been present in Darfur since September 2003, and launched activities in December 2003. Currently, more than 160 international volunteers and 2,000 Sudanese provide assistance to more than 550,000 displaced people in 24 locations in West, South, and North Darfur.
London/New York, July 26, 2004 - Despite the increased political and media attention being given to the crisis in Darfur, Western Sudan, the international medical relief agency, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), says that the desperate condition of the people there is not improving.
Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is now working with an international staff of 125 in 17 separate locations across the Darfur region.
After surviving a severe campaign of massive repression, civilians throughout Darfur now face an emergency health crisis. In addition to treating malnutrition, Dr. Greg Elder, head of mission for MSF in Sudan explained MSF's medical response to infectious diseases and sexual violence.
One hundred Sudanese dinars (30 cents) by foot, 200 by donkey: this is how much pro-government militias demand from those who forage for wood or grass beyond the periphery of Mornay camp, West Darfur.
MSF has been working in Darfur since December 2003. Today, nearly 100 international volunteers and 2,000 Sudanese staff provide medical and nutritional care in areas with more than 400,000 displaced people.
Between 20 and 30 thousand displaced people are crammed into thousands of rickety huts made from whatever scraps people could find: sticks, leaves, bits and pieces of cardboard, strips of cloth.
Khartoum, June 21, 2004 - After surviving massacres carried out by pro-government militias on their villages, displaced civilians in Darfur, Sudan continue to endure violent attacks and rapes around the areas in which they have gathered and face a devastating shortage of assistance, according to the international humanitarian medical aid organization Doctors Without Borders/Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF). Relief operations throughout the region fall far short of the massive needs, and as currently designed will not succeed in preventing an entirely man-made famine from wiping out tens of thousands of lives throughout the region.
New York, May 20, 2004 - The threat of famine looms in the Darfur region of western Sudan, according to the international medical aid organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF). A recent nutritional survey shows dangerously high levels of malnutrition and mortality and a rapidly deteriorating food security situation. With already high levels of excess deaths and malnutrition, the whole population is teetering on the verge of mass starvation.
New York/Ndjamena, May 11, 2004 - Hunger and disease are severely endangering the lives of tens of thousands of Sudanese refugees in Chad, according to the international medical aid organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) today. Malnutrition is rising, camps are overcrowded, food and water are scarce, and many people remain at risk from violent cross-border attacks by Sudanese militia. The refugees have fled extreme violence and massacres in the Darfur region of western Sudan, where a massive mobilization of humanitarian aid is also urgently needed.
New York, April 28, 2004 - Because of the lack of appropriate, urgently needed aid, the health of displaced people in Sudan's Darfur region - particularly children - is radically worsening, according to the international medical aid organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF).
A French nurse and a Canadian logistician, volunteers with MSF, have just returned from nearly two months as a two-person team in the town of Mornay, located in the Darfur region of Sudan.
New York, March 10, 2004 - The international medical aid organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has found alarming nutritional needs in the war-affected town of Garsilla, in the Darfur region of western Sudan. In the course of vaccinating more than 4,900 children against measles, MSF identified 111 severely malnourished and 387 moderately malnourished children, and will now open a therapeutic feeding center (TFC) to care for them.
New York, February 26, 2004 - Every assessment conducted by teams from Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) discovers newly displaced people living in extremely precarious conditions. Nearly 17,000 people have gathered recently in Krenik and Sisi, northwest of Mornay in Sudan's Darfur region. They have no access to drinking water and there is not enough food or medical assistance for them to survive. MSF has also counted 44 fresh graves - 17 for young children, which indicates a very high mortality rate.
New York, February 16, 2004 - Displaced people in the Darfur region of western Sudan are in extreme danger, and the massive emergency aid needed to ensure their survival is lacking.
New York/Paris, January 15, 2004 - Today, the Sudanese authorities closed camps in Nyala, western Sudan, following the attempt yesterday to transfer displaced persons without their consent to new camps located some 20 kilometers from the city. The new camp is in an area considered unsafe and where assistance is insufficient for this already vulnerable population. Some 10,000 people were living in the camps.
Transcript of an MSF doctor's extemporaneous remarks on Kala Azar in the Sudan before the Congressional Human Rights Caucus and the Congressional Black Caucus Health Brain Trust on access to medicines.
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