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Humanitarian Crisis

MSF response in Somalia, 2011: Full report & Summary

29 December 2011
Somalia
Somalia Accountability report 2011
The humanitarian situation in Somalia this year saw major food shortages – which caused severe malnutrition, large population displacement and outbreaks of cholera and measles. Download the report 'Assisting the Somali population affected by the humanitarian crisis of 2011'  As a result, MSF – which has been working in Somalia since 1991 – began significantly scaling up its medical response in Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya from April 2011. This was largely possible due to substantial financial support from private donors around the world.   The report ‘Assisting the Somali population affected by the humanitarian crisis of 2011’ ...
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MSF in Somalia, 2011: Report of activities

29 December 2011
Somalia accountability report
Somalia Accountability report cover
The humanitarian situation in Somalia this year saw major food shortages – which caused severe malnutrition, large population displacement and outbreaks of cholera and measles.   As a result, MSF – which has been working in Somalia since 1991 – began significantly scaling up its medical response in Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya from April 2011. This was largely possible due to substantial financial support from private donors around the world.   The report ‘Assisting the Somali population affected by the humanitarian crisis of 2011’ looks at MSF’s related activities from April to December 2011. It serves both to account for the generous support given for the people of Somalia, and to highlight...
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South Sudan: Emergencies unfolding one after the other

22 December 2011
malnutrition emergency, South Sudan, Agok
Clinical officer Michael Kipsang holds 18-month old Deng Ngor, who was diagnosed at the food distribution as suffering severe acute malnutrition and serious complications. MSF transferred the boy to its in-patient therapeutic centre in Agok. Avril Benoit/MSF
Agok/Doro - Six months after the birth of South Sudan as the world’s newest independent country, a series of emergencies are unfolding that require urgent humanitarian responses. Médecins Sans Frontières has scaled up into full emergency mode in Upper Nile State to respond to the sudden influx of thousands of refugees fleeing conflict in neighbouring Sudan.  And around the town of Agok in Northern Bahr al Ghazal State MSF is facing the spectre of a food shortage and has launched a preventive supplementary feeding programme for children who risk becoming malnourished in the months ahead.     18-month old Deng Ngor, suffering severe acute malnutrition and serious...
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South Sudan: "I Will Stay Here Until Our Home Place Has Peace."

13 December 2011
South Sudan, refugees, armed conflict
Refugees in Doro, South Sudan. © Jean-Marc Jacobs
  Refugees in Doro, South Sudan. © Jean-Marc Jacobs This 33-year-old man was interviewed in the Doro refugee camp in South Sudan on December 7, 2011. He was once a community health worker with an NGO in Blue Nile State, but has since spent 10 years in a refugee camp in Ethiopia during Sudan's civil war. He returned home in 2005, but has now been forced to register as a refugee once again. “The journey here was very hard for us. It was so far. For me and my family it took about one week and a half to come here to Doro. Our small children could not walk far. My wife and our 11-year-old each carried the twins, who are one year old, on their backs. I was carrying our...
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South Sudan: "These People Tell Us That They Are Desperate."

13 December 2011
South Sudan, armed conflict, refugees
Some of the thousands of refugees in Doro. © Jean-Marc Jacobs
Robert Mungai Maina, from Kenya, has eight years of professional experience as a clinical officer. He has worked with MSF in South Sudan for the past five months, and was assigned to the emergency team working in the Doro refugee camp last week. Some of the thousands of refugees in Doro, South Sudan © Jean-Marc Jacobs “Many of the patients that we see in our clinic have respiratory diseases. This is because most of the refugees are sleeping outside without anything to cover themselves. And there are many patients with diarrheal diseases because for the past weeks there were no latrines and there is not enough water. Today we had four cases of bloody diarrhea and many more cases...
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South Sudan: As refugee numbers grow, MSF scales up emergency response

13 December 2011
South Sudan, Blue Nile, conflict, refugees
The only water point in Doro, where thousands of refugees from Blue Nile State in Sudan are gathering. The queues are so long that many women wait until night to collect water. © Jean-Marc Jacobs
DORO, Maban County, South Sudan – The registered number of refugees gathering at the tiny village of Doro, as of December 7, was 21,500 and increasing daily. Anywhere from 500 to 1,000 newcomers are registering every day. The walk from their homelands in Blue Nile State, Sudan (north), took anywhere from one week to one month. Although the work to set up a properly organised refugee camp is under way, no family groups arriving at the gathering point at Doro have yet been allocated a plot. So the reality for most is still to find a small tree or bush under which to spread the belongings they were able to carry. The only water point in Doro, where thousands of refugees from Blue Nile State in Sudan are...
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MSF Frontline Reports: A doctor returns to Somaliland

06 December 2011
MSF Frontline Reports: A doctor returns to Somaliland
After 20 years outside the country, Dr. Sohur Mire came back to Somaliland to work with MSF
After 20 years outside the country, Dr. Sohur Mire came back to Somaliland to work with Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF). Somaliland is a nominally autonomous region of northern Somalia. At 68,000 square miles it's about the size of England and Wales, or the state of Oklahoma in the US, with a population of around 3.5 million. Decades of war and food shortages have left the area poor and insecure, although it has escaped the worst of recent violence in Somalia to the south. MSF's history here goes back to the 1980s; today, teams run two hospitals in the towns of Burco and Ceerigabo
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Knysna Plett Herald: Sedgefield guy makes good in Somaliland

10 November 2011
Garret Barnwell, Burco hospital, Somaliland
Garret Barnwell speaks with a mother and child in the paediatric department of Burco hospital, where he is an assistant field coordinator. Photo: MSF
Garrett Barnwell of Segdefield is currently helping to coordinate Doctors Without Borders’ (Medecins Sans Frontiers - MSF) medical activities in the autonomous north-western Somaliland region of Somalia. Somalia is experiencing a severe food crisis, but two decades of ongoing conflict makes it even more difficult to reach those who really need help. He spoke to Knysna-Plett Herald about his experiences there. Read full article.
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IRIN: SWAZILAND: Funding fiasco leaves country short of lab supplies

15 November 2011
antiretrovirals, ARVs, HIV/Aids, Swaziland
A patient holds out her antiretroviral medication - Swaziland chose not to apply for Global Fund money a year before stockouts began
First there were national shortages of HIV medication, then of HIV tests, now Swaziland lacks the lab tests essential for initiating and managing HIV patients on treatment. To make matters worse, the country chose not to apply for the international funding that could have safeguarded antiretroviral (ARV) stocks... According to Aymeric Péguillan, Swaziland head of mission for Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), the consequences of the government's decision not to seek international support for HIV treatment were predictable... Read full article.
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The Times: More aid capacity needed in Ethiopia: MSF

09 November 2011
Ethiopia, malnutrition, food crisis, aid
Recently displaced women queue for non-food items along the Somalia-Ethiopia border. Photo: THOMAS MUKOYA / REUTERS
Unless the capacity to deliver aid is rapidly increased, there will be significant problems in meeting the needs of Somalis fleeing to Ethiopia, the international medical humanitarian organisation Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors without Borders, MSF) said today... “At the moment, the capacity to receive more people and provide the necessary food, nutritional care, medical care, drinking water, sanitation and more is grossly insufficient,” said Wojciech Asztabski, MSF Project Coordinator for the Dollo Ado intervention... Read full article.
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by Dr. Radut.