MSF worldwide work highlight (28/5 – 9/6)

 

MSF strongly condemns violence against humanitarian workers and facilities following the attack on an office of International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Jalalabad on 29 May. 

 

Three months after a coup d’etat, MSF has opened a new emergency health project in Bossangoa, in the north of Bangui, where staff is holding more than 300 out-patient consultations every day. MSF teams are also holding mobile clinics in a number of districts where the population is still hiding in the bush, due to the presence of armed men. 

 

As the rainy season begins, MSF teams are working to provide emergency and primary healthcare to the refugees and the Chadian population in the Tissi area. An emergency room has been set up in the town of Tissi to treat wounded patients, children under the age of five and pregnant women. In addition, 32,000 children under the age of 15 have been vaccinated to contain a measles outbreak.

 

Some 5,000 people have found refuge in Sotraki Stadium near Goma to flee the conflict at the end of May. MSF has established a mobile clinic to provide medical care at this transitional site. MSF teams are also working at hospitalization centres in the Bulengo and Mugunga III camps.

 

MSF is supporting rural health facilities in 10 different locations across the districts of Roma and Semonkong, to ensure more women from remote areas have access to antenatal services and safe deliveries. 

 

Nearly a year since inter-ethnic clashes in Rakhine broke out, an estimated 140,000 people are still living in makeshift camps. Tens of thousands more people are almost entirely cut off from health facilities, food, markets, their fields and even clean water. MSF calls on the government to ensure the displaced and those cut off from services to have proper shelter and access to healthcare. They should also be able to move freely, without fear of attack.

 

MSF team was a target of a carjacking by five armed men on 18 May in the city of Maiduguri, and was forced to suspend its activities in the town of Baga.

 

MSF, in collaboration with the South Sudanese Ministry of Health, stemmed a meningitis A outbreak and vaccinated over 130,000 people against the disease in Upper Nile state.

 

Dr. Mego TERZIAN, President of MSF, delivered a speech in the United Nations meeting for a joint launch of the Syrian humanitarian assistance plan for 2013, to relay the call to the UN and to all relevant States asking for an urgent increase of level of assistance to the Syrian population, and to fulfil their responsibilities towards the millions of victims.

 

Nearly half a million Syrians are now refugees in Jordan, and more than 100,000 of them live in Zaatari camp. MSF opened a pediatric hospital in March and an outpatient clinic for children in April. 

 

In Lebanon, more than 10,600 Syrian families are taking refuge in Tripoli. MSF is supporting a government-run hospital there by providing human resources, trainings, equipment and supplies. MSF is also working in two clinics in Jabal Mohsen and Bab al-Tabbaneh to provide primary healthcare services.