Colombia earthquake update: MSF response

As of August 20, 319 people have died, 4,506 have been injured, and 260 remain missing, according to the latest official figures from Colombia’s National Unit for Disaster Risk Management. Afro-Colombian and Indigenous communities are among the hardest hit.

Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has mobilized emergency assessment and response teams in Colombia, prioritizing Valle del Cauca and Chocó. Our teams are running mobile clinics providing primary health care, mental health support, and sexual and reproductive health services in affected neighborhoods where local health facilities have been damaged or overwhelmed.

Taking stock of the earthquake’s impact

The earthquake has affected more than 282,000 people across 15 departments and 476 municipalities. Damage to infrastructure is significant: More than 31,000 homes have been destroyed and nearly 163,000 damaged; 302 buildings have collapsed; and 348 health facilities and 3,483 schools have sustained damage.

The highest number of deaths has been reported in Cali and Pereira. However, the largest gaps in access to medical care remain in mid-sized cities such as Buenaventura and Quibdó, as well as in hard-to-reach rural areas where the health system was already facing serious limitations before the earthquake.

How MSF is responding to the Colombia earthquake

During the first days of MSF’s response activities in Quibdó, our teams provided assistance at the Municipal Coliseum shelter and in the Medrano and Las Palmas neighborhoods. They carried out 250 general medical consultations, more than 60 nursing and family planning consultations, and 170 rapid laboratory tests. The teams prioritized care for children under 5, pregnant women, and patients with chronic conditions such as hypertension and diabetes.

To cover people’s mental health needs, MSF has provided 37 individual consultations and seven group psychoeducation sessions, reaching 57 people. The most frequently reported symptoms include hypervigilance, fear of further aftershocks, difficulty sleeping, deep sadness, and psychosomatic reactions such as dizziness and headaches.

In Buenaventura, MSF teams began running mobile clinics on August 20 in the Alberto Lleras neighborhood, one of the most affected areas in the city. They conducted 46 medical consultations, nine individual mental health consultations, and five group sessions, serving 31 patients.

We have also donated hygiene kits, pediatric medicines, antibiotics, wound care supplies, treatments for chronic diseases, and ready-to-use therapeutic food to ESE Ismael Roldán in Quibdó and IPS Espíritu Santo in Unión Panamericana, which supplies rural health posts.

Our teams continue to assess needs and adapt the response to reach the most vulnerable people and those with the least access to medical care.