Posts tagged Horn of Africa
This fall, we’re kicking off our Starved for Attention campaign again with a traveling exhibit that will recreate a Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) field hospital specializing in the treatment of malnourished children, just like those used by the organization in malnutrition “hotspots” such as Somalia, Niger, Burkina Faso, India, and elsewhere.
Coming to New York, Brooklyn, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington D.C. Details here.
Photos: (1) Burkina Faso, 2009 © Jessica Dimmock/VII (2) A similar exhibit that toured Italy earlier this year.
We sent medical teams and four charter planes carrying 55 tons of medical equipment, medicines and therapeutic food to Mogadishu in response to the crisis in Somalia. We also started measles vaccination campaigns in dozens of makeshift camps where thousands of people have gathered after fleeing the exceptional drought and the violence in other parts of the country. Almost 3,000 children were vaccinated so far. Of the nearly 1,000 children screened for malnutrition, more than half were malnourished.
More: MSF is Rapidly Scaling Up Activities in Mogadishu, Somalia
Photo: Somalia 2011 © Feisal Omar
One morning, I was talking to a family of ten. I poured a full glass of water from a pitcher and passed it to a child. He took a sip, and passed it on to his brother and so on. The last one returned it to me with enough left for the last gulp. Even in the camp, they take only what they need to survive and share the rest. What you see on the surface looks like extreme fragility, but it’s actually tremendous resilience and the extraordinary affirmation of their will to live.
MSF staff tend to a Somali mother and her child in Liben, Ethiopia. The thousands of Somalis who have left for Ethiopia in the last few months have done so mainly to escape drought and famine. The terribly overcrowded conditions in camps heighten the risk of epidemics. With food, water, and sufficient sanitation in short supply, many of the children need care for persistent diarrhea and respiratory infections.
Ethiopia: Thousands of Somalis Fleeing Famine And War Continue to Arrive
Photo: Ethiopia 2011 © MSF
We wanted to go to the Kenyan refugee camps, but we were not able to pay the high price of the transportation. Instead, we arrived in Jilib, hoping to get some assistance. We used to have cows but we lost most of our livestock four months ago. When we lost our last two cows, we set out from our village on foot. It took us 15 days to reach Jilib.
Somali refugees wait to be officially registered and to receive a ration card for food. Since it can be two months before they get their first food ration, many refugees already settled in the camp share their food with new arrivals. (Photo: Kenya 2011 © Brendan Bannon)
Men dig a grave for a 35-year-old mother of five from Somalia. She had arrived at Dadaab camp in Kenya two months earlier, after a 290-km (180-mile) journey from Sakow district, southern Somalia. Her children all survived. (Photo: 2011 © Brendan Bannon)
Young Somali refugees wait to receive vaccinations from MSF health workers in the Dadaab refugee camp. (Photo: 2011 © Brendan Bannon)
MSF Frontline Reports podcast, Ep. 96 - Inside Somalia: MSF Malnutrition Ward Is “Beyond Full”
The effects of ongoing drought in the Horn of Africa region have intensified the situation in Somalia, already precarious due to 20 years of violent conflict: food prices have gone up, livestock are dying, and humanitarian aid in the country is scarce. MSF’s Marere Hospital in southern Somalia is the only health facility in the area. A Somali medical worker from Marere described the current crisis.
Independent Television News’ Martin Geissler reports from the intensive care unit at Hagadera Hospital in Dadaab. Hundreds of thousands of refugees have fled from Somalia into Kenya. Be advised: This story does contain disturbing images.
Somalis in Kenya: From One Desert to Another
Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is deeply concerned by the relocation of Somali refugees in Dadaab, in northeastern Kenya, to the Ifo 3 extension camp. The relocation, which began yesterday under the auspices of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), has been carried out with little transparency or consultation with other agencies on the ground and the refugee community itself.
Each day, some 200 families are being relocated to Ifo 3, a camp with few basic services, including water and sanitation. It is expected that the camp will hold a total of 60,000 refugees, which is 20,000 more people than it was originally designed for. NGOs were alerted only last Friday of the relocation exercise, and although water is currently being trucked to the new camp and latrines are rapidly being dug, the camp does not at present meet the minimum humanitarian standards.
Furthermore, this camp has no hospital structure, which will force MSF to refer patients in need of hospitalization or inpatient therapeutic feeding to either the Dagahaley camp or Ifo camp hospitals, both of which are already operating beyond full capacity because of widespread malnutrition and other medical issues among the rapidly swelling refugee population.
Meanwhile, just a few kilometers away lies Ifo 2, a camp that was due to open last November and is already equipped with boreholes, latrines and showers, electricity, some shelter, and schools.
MSF calls on the Government of Kenya and the UNHCR to ensure the immediate relocation of refugees to Ifo 2 as announced by the government 12 days ago. Full press release.
East Africa Famine: How to Help
PHOTO: DADAAB, KENYA - JULY 22: A Somalian refugee holds his child outside his home on the edge of the Ifo refugee camp which makes up part of the giant Dadaab refugee settlement on July 22, 2011 in Dadaab, Kenya. Oli Scarff/Getty Images
Follow our media relations manager, Michael Goldfarb (@goldfarbMSF), on Twitter for on-the-ground updates on the nutrition crisis in the Horn of Africa. He’s tweeting from Dadaab, Kenya, where violence and drought are driving Somalis from their homes in search of care and shelter.
Fighting in Somalia, restrictions on supply flights and international support staff, as well as administrative hurdles, have all contributed to the current hardship faced by the Somali population today. It is essential that both restrictions and obstacles to humanitarian aid be removed as the situation continues to worsen.
Kenya and Ethiopia host the vast majority of Somali refugees and should prioritize the opening of new camps and improve the existing ones. But the international community has a shared responsibility to help Somalis seeking refuge by ensuring efficient registration, adequate food rations, and shelter in existing and new camps. The current bureaucratic restrictions and obstacles are causing unnecessary delays and all measures should be taken to respond to the emergency.
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Doctors Without Borders/ Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is an international medical humanitarian organization working in more than 60 countries to assist people whose survival is threatened by violence, neglect, or catastrophe. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.
