International Activity Report 2005
Iraq

International Staff: 5
National Staff: 94

MSF leaves Iraq

Photo © Geert Van Kesteren

The continuing violence rocking Iraq — sometimes directly targeted at humanitarian aid workers — forced MSF to close its projects there in early November 2004. Given the considerable needs of the Iraqi people, this decision was made with a great deal of regret. However, MSF considers it irresponsible to expose its staff to serious risks that now come with being associated with an international humanitarian organization working in Iraq.

During the project's nearly two years of activity, MSF teams worked in various parts of the country. MSF supported Baghdad's Al Thawra Hospital as well as three health clinics located in the Sadr City slum, in which it provided approximately 100,000 medical consultations. When fighting broke out in early August 2004 in Sadr City, MSF assisted dozens of wounded civilians.

MSF staff at the three clinics provided emergency care while two ambulances transported severely injured people to hospitals in Baghdad. Meanwhile teams assessed medical needs in the cities of Fallujah, Najaf and Kerbala, which endured heavy fighting, and supplied needed materials to health workers there. Shelter material was also distributed to some 15,000 displaced people who had fled fighting in Fallujah and settled in the town of Al Habanniyah.

MSF worked in Iraq from December 2002 until November 2004.