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Somalia

Somalia

International Activity Report, 2009 In 2009, the people of Somali continued to be the victims of indiscriminate violence due to ongoing internal conflict. Many thousands needed emergency healthcare but the overall humanitarian response was inadequate. MSF worked in nine regions to provide urgent medical care. Insecurity and violence Abductions and killings of international and Somali aid workers, and ongoing insecurity remained the biggest obstacles to MSF’s efforts to respond to the vast medical needs throughout the country. In April two staff members were abducted in the Bakool region and held for ten days before being released. Following the abduction, MSF decided that it could no longer safely provide care to the people...
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Inner City Gazette: Expo on plight of migrants

10 May 2012
Solidarity for Survival, migrants, refugees, expo, Somalia, Zimbabwe, Congo, MSF
Suitcase display at MSF's Solidarity for Survival exhibition. Photo: MSF
Exhibition inspires action to aid vulnerable migrants.  Medecins Sans Frontieres / Doctors Without Borders (MSF) South Africa opened a dynamic and thought provoking exhibition titled Solidarity for Survival. In a press statement MSF says the exhibition brings attention on the plight of thousands of people who survive displacement and migration; and come to South Africa in the face of discrimination and healthcare exclusion... Read full article below.
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MSF concludes cholera intervention in Balcad, Middle Shabelle, Somalia

18 May 2012
MSF medical teams in Middle Shabelle have responded to a cholera outbreak detected in the region late March. The confirmation of the first cholera case prompted the humanitarian organization to open a Cholera Treatment Centre (CTC) in Balcad (Middle Shabelle) on March 28th, which has admitted a total of 77 patients. Two infants died initially due to late arrival at the MSF health facility; the other 75 patients were successfully cured.  The majority of affected patients were children under five years old. In addition to treating patients, MSF teams also carried out chlorination of the water sources, and distributed water purifying tablets to the affected communities.  In the absence of new cases in the last 2...
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MSF puts on hold the opening of any non-emergency projects in Somalia until the safe release of its two staff

16 April 2012
Montserrat Serra and Blanca Thiebaut
Montserrat Serra and Blanca Thiebaut
  Montserrat Serra and Blanca Thiebaut     The international medical organization; Médecins Sans Frontières / Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has put on hold any opening of new non-emergency projects and/or the expansion of the existing ones in Somalia until the safe release of its two colleagues, Blanca Thiebaut and Montserrat Serra, abducted from the Dadaab refugee camps six months ago, on October 13 2011, and held against their will in Somalia. Still committed to the Somali population, MSF will continue to respond to life-saving emergencies. Nevertheless, MSF cannot operate with normalcy when two of its colleagues...
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A Month in Focus - March 2012

01 March 2012
5 stories published in this month's news update: Maternal health – Saving women’s lives Dadaab – Back to square one Tuberculosis – A constant battle Sleeping sickness – A mobile team in in central Africa Novartis – The final act
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Somalia: Measles Takes its Toll

06 March 2012
Somalia: A four-year-old boy suffering from measles and malnutrition
A four-year-old boy suffering from measles and malnutrition waits for his medicine in Banadir hospital in Mogadishu.
Measles is sweeping unchecked through parts of southern Somalia. The disease is highly contagious and unvaccinated children are at great risk, especially if they are also malnourished. The war in southern Somalia is a key factor contributing to ongoing widespread malnutrition, low vaccination coverage and lack of access to healthcare services. All of these factors aggravate the spread and severity of diseases like measles. In some MSF programmes measles cases have sharply increased in recent days and weeks, many of them in severe condition.       A four-year-old boy suffering from measles and malnutrition waits for his medicine in Banadir hospital in Mogadishu. Photo: Martina...
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M&G: Conditions worsen in Dadaab

06 March 2012
Dadaab, The Largest Refugee Camp in the World
Dadaab, The Largest Refugee Camp in the World
Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) continues to work in Dadaab despite the abduction of two of their staff in October last year. MSF has launched a public report called Dadaab: Back to Square One, which sounds the alarm on the worsening situation in the world’s largest refugee camp. Click on the banner to watch the video on M&G online.
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MSF is doing everything in its power to bring about the safe release of Blanca Thiebaut and Montserrat Serra

02 January 2012
Montserrat Serra and Blanca Thiebaut
Montserrat Serra and Blanca Thiebaut
  Montserrat Serra and Blanca Thiebaut   MSF is doing everything in its power to bring about the safe release of Blanca Thiebaut and Montserrat Serra who were abducted in Dadaab, Kenya on October 13, 2011, while providing humanitarian assistance to Somali refugees.   MSF calls on all Somalis; the diaspora, community leaders and especially the authorities in control of areas in Somalia where its kidnapped colleagues are being detained, to do everything possible to facilitate their safe release.
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Ethiopia: "There is still so much to improve

29 February 2012
Ethiopia
Ethiopia: MSF provides primary health care, psycho social care, runs a nutrition program, reproductive health program and an out Patient Department.
In early 2011, there were some 40,000 Somali refugees in Ethiopia. By the end of 2011, that number had more than tripled, to 142,000, following a mass exodus triggered by a terrible drought that killed crops and herds in a country already wracked by 20 years of conflict. The numbers alone, however, do not tell much about the days, or even weeks, Somalis spend walking to reach and cross the border with barely any food or water. It does not reveal the dire malnutrition affecting the children in the camps, nor does it express the effort made by humanitarian agencies to fight hunger and exclusion and reduce emergency levels of child mortality. José Luis Dvorzak, a Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (...
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Dadaab Refugee Camps: Back to square one

16 February 2012
Dadaab: Back to square one
Dadaab: Back to square one
Download Dadaab Back to Square One   In the Dadaab camp - the largest refugee camp in the world- where life is becoming more difficult everyday, hundreds of thousands of refugees are facing a humanitarian emergency. The health of refugees is at risk of deteriorating rapidly while humanitarian aid agencies are struggling to provide meaningful assistance on an ongoing basis. In October 2011, in the wake of the kidnapping of two MSF staff and amid a climate of worsening security, all ‘non-lifesaving activities’ were halted within the camps, and official registration of new arrivals was stopped. Today, for many refugees, services have not been restored. There is an urgent need to...
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by Dr. Radut.