MSF arrived Medan with the Greenpeace flagship "Rainbow Warrior" this morning

MSF Teams can reach remote coastal areas by sea

Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) and Greenpeace are working together to bring desperately needed medical aid to survivors of last week¡¦s earthquake. Greenpeace's "Rainbow Warrior", with MSF aid workers on board, docked Medan, Indonesia this morning. They will later head to Krueng Raya, 409 km east of Banda Aceh and is expected to arrive with materials including gas and 6 tonnes of rice tomorrow afternoon.

With the help of "Rainbow Warrior", MSF teams can reach to those remote and inaccessible areas. When it arrives Banda Aceh, gas and fuel will be loaded first and sent to Meulaboh. A team will be sent to do the assessment along the coastal line to see if there are any people need medical help.

MSF has already sent materials weighed over 100 tonnes, which include materials for surgery, water & sanitation equipment, food and other supplies, to Banda Aceh.

MSF returned by helicopter to Lhok Timon along the west coast of the Aceh Province to provide medical consultations. Following the tsunami, only 1,270 people of the original population of 3,200 are still in the village. Those remaining have been living on coconuts and have been reduced to eating their livestock. From nearby Calang, MSF took two people back to Banda Aceh in their helicopter for hospitalization: one is a 14-year old girl with an acute open arm wound, the other a man of 45 with a hole in his chest.

Medical consultations in Cot Keung, Banda Aceh, also continued, with two teams providing 225 consultations.

Faced with a lack of clean water, the MSF water and sanitation team has set up a 5 cubic metre water bladder to provide for a population of 1,700 in the Depkes Building in Cik Di Tiro (Banda Aceh). Disinfection station opened 03/01. Corpses still remain in the streets of Banda Aceh. MSF has provided 217 body bags (with another 230 to follow) to the Indonesian soldiers and civilian volunteers who have been dealing with this particular task for almost a week. In addition, MSF is going to install disinfection points for these workers and will train the staff of the Indonesian Red Crescent in the coming days.

An assessment team has also been dispatched to villages east of Banda Aceh. In the district of Sigli, there are around 12,000 people displaced and local organisations are providing medical care. The lower part of Sigli has been completely destroyed. The team also went to Batee, west of Sigli, when there are serious concerns about the state of water supply and sanitation.

The team also managed to land in Meulahoh where there are around 5000 IDPs, 100 of whom need surgery for wounds. In general, there are still wounded in most villages.