 MSF staff provide care to desperate Rwandan refugees gathered in the Songore transit camp in Burundi. Photo © MSF |
Treating civilians affected by war
Many years of war have devastated Burundi's health sector leaving
most of the country's more than seven million people without basic
care. Life expectancy has fallen to just above 40 years and HIV/AIDS
prevalence is increasing. MSF works in many parts of Burundi, treating
war wounded, caring for victims of sexual violence, responding to
disease outbreaks and providing basic medical care.
In the northern province of Karuzi, MSF
staff work to ensure quality primary health
care in 10 health centers and secondary
health care at Buhiga Hospital. MSF provides
medicines, training and supervision
of medical activities as well as drug and
financial management. The team also
implements nutritional activities in the
region as needed, providing supplementary
feeding to malnourished patients. In
the eastern Ruyigi province, MSF offers
basic health care. The MSF team supports
seven outpatient health centers and two
hospitals — the latter located in Ruyigi town
and in rural Kinyinya. Activities include
direct patient care, waste management,
health education and training of local staff.
Since 2000, MSF has operated a basic
health care program in Ijenda district in the
western, rural Bujumbura province.
The
MSF team supports 10 public health structures
in the province, providing training
and supplying medicines. In addition, MSF
has started supporting a hospital and two health centers in the Musema region of the
northern Kayanza province. Until the end
of May 2005, MSF also provided health care
services at Makamba Hospital in the southern
province of Makamba. The hospital
team supported all major services, including
surgery, and provided drugs, medical
material and technical expertise.
Helping survivors of sexual violence
Since 2003, MSF has assisted victims of sexual
violence in a health center located in
Bujumbura, the capital. This center serves
both the population of Bujumbura and
those living in the region's hills. At the
facility, a team provides medical and psychological
care to women and children.
Other services are offered as well, including
family planning and care for sexually
transmitted infections. The MSF team also
focuses on raising awareness about rape in
the community and educating residents on
sexual violence and its consequences. As of
mid-2005, approximately 120 victims were sexual
being cared for each month. MSF teams
provide support to survivors of sexual violence
in other parts of Burundi as well,
including Ruyigi, Kinyinya and Karuzi.
Assisting people with cholera
In January 2005, MSF reopened a choleratreatment
center in the Kamenge neighborhood
of Bujumbura. By February 2005,
the number of cholera patients had begun
to decrease and MSF closed those activities.
However, the center is still treating
war-wounded civilians from rural
Bujumbura, the country's last province still
at war. More than one hundred have been
hospitalized there and more than 300 people
have received outpatient care. MSF also
helps Burundians suffering from other diseases
and supports the implementation of
appropriate treatment protocols, such as
the use of artemisinin-based combination
therapy (ACT) for malaria patients.
Helping Rwandan refugees
In early June 2005, MSF began offering
urgently needed medical assistance to
Rwandan refugees living in intolerable
conditions in the Songore transit camp in
Burundi's northern province of Ngozi, 20
kilometers from the Rwandan border. The
camp, which was built for 800 people, soon
held more than 7,000 Rwandans, mostly
Hutus, who feared possible prosecution by
local genocide courts. The refugees had
insufficient water, food and shelter. MSF
staff quickly began treating people
through a mobile clinic and later a health
center.
Rwanda and Burundi dismissed the entire
group as "illegal immigrants" despite their
requests for asylum in Burundi. Later in
June, the government of Burundi began to
repatriate by force the inhabitants of
Songore camp as well as 2,000 people
gathered at other camps. This action emptied
the camp within a few days. Denied
access to the camp at the start of the operation,
MSF and other aid organizations protested
strongly against the situation and
worked to raise awareness about it.
MSF has worked in Burundi since 1992.
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