Darfur: Interview with project coordinator of Kalma camp, Lydia Geirsdottir

07 October 2008

In Darfur in Sudan people have been suffering for years from the violence of rebels and state troops. People flee from their villages into camps, but these do not offer them safety either. In August there was a serious incident with many dead and wounded in Kalma Camp, the largest IDP camp in Darfur where more than 90,000 people live. MSF has been running a clinic in Kalma since 2004. Swedish project coordinator Lydia Geirsdottir and her team assisted the wounded.

Where were the teams of MSF when the shooting started?

All international staff, trained doctors and specialised nurses were in the next city, in Nyala. They are not allowed to stay overnight in the camp and drive every day 45 minutes in and out. It was early in the morning when armed military surrounded the camp, hence the international staff was not there. In our clinic we have a team of local staff, displaced themselves, who live in Kalma and they called us on that day, 25 August. At 8 am there was shooting, which went on for twenty minutes. More than 60 wounded came to the clinic for help.

The international team, were unable to assist as we could not access the camp from Nyala that morning, due to blockages on the way. In the clinic only two of our staff are trained nurses. Using every possible resource at their disposal they managed, with tremendous effort, to give the many wounded at least basic medical attention and in doing so saved many peoples lives.

When could the rest of the team access the camp?

Around noon on the same day we managed to get permission to go to Kalma. When we drove towards the entrance of the camp we saw women, children and men from the camp, all armed with sticks, ready to defend their camp from armed military. When we arrived at our clinic the situation was chaotic. There were 65 wounded women, children and men lying all over the clinic and another 46 waiting in another NGO clinic in Kalma that we also needed to attend to. Many of them were severely wounded and needed to be transported to the hospital in Nyala for urgent surgery. We decided that 49 of them had to be transported immediately and using our cars took them out of the camp to the town.

Driving to Nyala hospital was very challenging. It had been raining heavily and we got stuck in the mud again and again. There were critically wounded people in the car, we had only been able to bring a limited number of medical staff, and we were aware that the fighting could resume very near us at any moment. After many hours we had managed to get to the hospital – under normal circumstances the journey takes only 45 minutes.

The drive was not the only problem we faced: Normally a care-taker takes care of providing food and tending to a patients’ needs in the hospital. However, because we had to transport many wounded we could not take anybody extra to the clinic.
At the hospital, the wounded were seen to by local surgeons and after surgery they were looked after by staff of MSF.

How did things develop in the camp?

On the day following the shooting we could not get to the camp. Only on the day after that was the complete team on site again and able to look after the wounded that were left behind. For security reasons no other aid organisation had sent their staff into the camp for five days.

I am extremely proud of my team for helping the people of Kalma Camp without interruption in such a moment of fear and despair. The staff who normally do not perform medical duties have since expressed an urgent interest in having first-aid training.

Outbreaks of violence regularly occur in the camp. How dangerous is the situation for MSF staff?

For us the situation is relatively safe. MSF is respected from all sides. Close to 9,000 people come to the various departments in our health centre every month. In addition to basic medical care we provide psychosocial counselling. And people feel safer when there are international teams. It gives them the feeling they are safer from outside attacks.

Will MSF stay on the ground?

We will continue to provide our regular services. Also the other relief organisations are now back in the camp. But sadly such a violent incident could occur again at any time. This is why we are currently working to better prepare our local staff for extreme emergencies – by providing them with first-aid training.