PRESS RELEASE

October 9, 2002
Emergency team arrives in Bouaké, Ivory Coast

Paris/New York October 9, 2002 – Profiting from a calm in the conflict, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières volunteers joined the MSF team in Bouaké on Monday, with a cargo of medical and surgical equipment. This equipment (medicines, surgical kit, medical kit and sanitary equipment) is destined for the central hospital and for some peripheral health infrastructures.

On Monday afternoon, the intensity of the fighting did not permit our team to move around the town of Bouaké. On Tuesday morning, our volunteers were able to make it to the central hospital, where about thirty injured were being taken care of. Our team put themselves at their disposal. However, the small numbers of admissions to the hospital seems to indicate that many victims were unable to reach the hospital.

Closed since the beginning of the military troubles, the public dispensaries remain paralysed. Our team is going to restart activity in some of these dispensaries, so that the civil population can access basic health care.

If the situation allows, our team will today lead an evaluative mission in some of Bouaké's precarious neighbourhoods, where there is no access to drinkable water, and where people are beginning to suffer from lack of food.

© 2013 Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF)