Posts tagged Refugees

South Sudan: Aid Needed Before the Rains Start

Ninety-thousand refugees fleeing conflict have taken refuge in the camps of Jamam and Doro. Aid is desperately needed before the rainy season complicates access to the camps.

Burkina Faso: A Constant Flow of Refugees

Approximately 56,000 Malians have taken refuge in Burkina Faso after fleeing fighting that began in Mali in mid-January. They are living in makeshift shelters in camps where the sun beats down relentlessly and where aid is severely lacking.

International Aid Remains Insufficient for 160,000 Malian Refugees

Nearly 160,000 Malians have fled their country for camps in Burkina Faso, Mauritania, and Niger. While instability persists in Mali, another threat looms: the rainy season, which will further complicate the deployment of aid.

Burkina Faso: Insufficient and Inadequate Support for 46,000 Malian Refugees Access to food, water, and basic shelter continues to deteriorate for refugees from Mali in makeshift camps in a desert region of Burkina Faso, said the international medical humanitarian organization MSF on Monday. More than a quarter million people have fled to Mali’s interior and neighboring countries since fighting erupted between Tuareg rebels and the Malian army earlier this year. Since mid January, 46,000 Malians have taken refuge in Burkina Faso, with the vast majority in Oudalan province in the north, a desert area where humanitarian aid is very limited. MSF teams are providing emergency medical aid in the refugee camps, where needs outstrip resources.Photo: Burkina Faso 2012 © Aurelie Baumel/MSF Malian refugees fleeing conflict have come to find refuge in northern Burkina Faso, mainly in the provinces of Soum and Oudalan.

Burkina Faso: Insufficient and Inadequate Support for 46,000 Malian Refugees

Access to food, water, and basic shelter continues to deteriorate for refugees from Mali in makeshift camps in a desert region of Burkina Faso, said the international medical humanitarian organization MSF on Monday.

More than a quarter million people have fled to Mali’s interior and neighboring countries since fighting erupted between Tuareg rebels and the Malian army earlier this year. Since mid January, 46,000 Malians have taken refuge in Burkina Faso, with the vast majority in Oudalan province in the north, a desert area where humanitarian aid is very limited. MSF teams are providing emergency medical aid in the refugee camps, where needs outstrip resources.

Photo: Burkina Faso 2012 © Aurelie Baumel/MSF
Malian refugees fleeing conflict have come to find refuge in northern Burkina Faso, mainly in the provinces of Soum and Oudalan.

Mauritania: Thousands of Refugees From Mali Facing Poor ConditionsHealth and Living Conditions Stretched Thin in Camp and Surrounding Area Increasing numbers of people from Mali are entering a refugee camp in neighboring Mauritania, where health and living conditions are already poor, MSF said today. At least 57,000 people from Mali have entered the Mbera refugee camp in Mauritania since late January. Roughly 1,500 people are arriving in the camp per day, up from 200 per day on April 5. Thousands more people are expected to arrive. In response to the massive influx, MSF is bolstering its activities and emergency medical aid in the desert area, where access to medical care is extremely limited.Mauritania 2012 © Francois Talla/MSF A Malian woman driven from her home by fighting watches as an MSF doctor checks on her child at the rapidly expanding Mbera camp in Mauritania.

Mauritania: Thousands of Refugees From Mali Facing Poor Conditions
Health and Living Conditions Stretched Thin in Camp and Surrounding Area

Increasing numbers of people from Mali are entering a refugee camp in neighboring Mauritania, where health and living conditions are already poor, MSF said today.

At least 57,000 people from Mali have entered the Mbera refugee camp in Mauritania since late January. Roughly 1,500 people are arriving in the camp per day, up from 200 per day on April 5. Thousands more people are expected to arrive. In response to the massive influx, MSF is bolstering its activities and emergency medical aid in the desert area, where access to medical care is extremely limited.

Mauritania 2012 © Francois Talla/MSF
A Malian woman driven from her home by fighting watches as an MSF doctor checks on her child at the rapidly expanding Mbera camp in Mauritania.

South Sudan: MSF Assists Patients Wounded in Aerial Bombardment in Unity StateMSF is treating patients wounded on April 10 during aerial bombardments of Abiemnom in South Sudan’s Unity State. Violence has rocked the region over the past few weeks and the situation remains extremely volatile.MSF’s hospital in Agok, 36 kilometers (about 22 miles) east of Abiemnom, received four wounded patients on the afternoon of April 10—a woman and three children—all of whom had severe open wounds requiring multiple surgeries. All four have now been stabilized. The MSF team in Agok has also donated drugs and equipment to the Ministry of Health’s medical center in Abiemnom to support the treatment of an additional 40 wounded patients there. “In this region the population is on the frontline,” says Emmanuel Roussier, MSF’s head of mission in Juba. “Emergencies are unfolding one after another. Our teams are doing their best to respond to people’s most urgent needs—whether for food, shelter, or health care. Our constant concern is to provide comprehensive secondary health care and life saving activities to all the communities in the region.”South Sudan 2011 © Corentin Fohlen Internally displaced refugees who fled the fighting in the Abyei region carry relief items distributed by MSF.

South Sudan: MSF Assists Patients Wounded in Aerial Bombardment in Unity State

MSF is treating patients wounded on April 10 during aerial bombardments of Abiemnom in South Sudan’s Unity State. Violence has rocked the region over the past few weeks and the situation remains extremely volatile.

MSF’s hospital in Agok, 36 kilometers (about 22 miles) east of Abiemnom, received four wounded patients on the afternoon of April 10—a woman and three children—all of whom had severe open wounds requiring multiple surgeries. All four have now been stabilized. The MSF team in Agok has also donated drugs and equipment to the Ministry of Health’s medical center in Abiemnom to support the treatment of an additional 40 wounded patients there.

“In this region the population is on the frontline,” says Emmanuel Roussier, MSF’s head of mission in Juba. “Emergencies are unfolding one after another. Our teams are doing their best to respond to people’s most urgent needs—whether for food, shelter, or health care. Our constant concern is to provide comprehensive secondary health care and life saving activities to all the communities in the region.”

South Sudan 2011 © Corentin Fohlen
Internally displaced refugees who fled the fighting in the Abyei region carry relief items distributed by MSF.

Before, I was also a refugee in Ethiopia. It was a long time ago and there were many of us. We spent something like 20 years there as refugees. After that, we came back to Blue Nile and now again we are here in Doro camp, because of this new fighting in Blue Nile State.

For the refugees living all around me in Doro, there is not enough water for everyone. It is my wife who collects the water. When she goes in the morning, sometimes she can wait till evening before she gets any water. Every time she comes back and she tells me about how she had to quarrel with other women about the water.

Younassa Lifa Lenya,
a refugee now employed as a nurse in the MSF field hospital in Doro

Since November, some 80,000 refugees from Sudan’s Blue Nile State have sought shelter in two camps located in a remote and barren region of South Sudan where humanitarian organizations are confronting massive logistic challenges to access and assist them. Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has been running a substantial emergency response, focusing on providing medical care in the camps and in mobile clinics to villages along the border with Sudan, where several thousand more refugees are gathered.

Somali Refugees in Dadaab Struggle On

Though the international spotlight has moved on, hundreds of thousands of Somali refugees in the Dadaab camps in northwestern Kenya, the largest refugee camps in the world, continue to struggle amid harsh conditions and pervasive malnutrition, particularly among children. Aid has been too slow in coming, however, and longer-term solutions are nowhere to be found.

Maternal Health: An Ongoing Emergency

MSF is providing maternal and emergency obstetric care in more than 30 countries worldwide, but in places where woman cannot access care, some 1,000 die every day due to complications in pregnancy and delivery.

“It’s Really a Delicate Balance”: An MSF Doctor in the Jamam Refugee Camp Dr. Kirrily de Polnay is working with Doctors Without Borders in the Jamam camp in an isolated region of South Sudan, where thousands of refugees from Sudan’s Blue Nile State are currently seeking sanctuary and the coming rainy season threatens to make delivering humanitarian aid even more challenging than it is now. Here, she talks about the situation in Jamam: “We have so many cases of diarrhea and you’re trying to explain to them how to make the ORS [Oral Rehydration Solution] and they don’t have anything to make it in. Even I can find it hard to judge exactly half a sachet, and you tell them, “whatever you do you must drink water, you must drink the ORS we give you.” And they nod and say yes, but you know that they do not have enough water to really do that. They’ve only got a few liters a day. So what we are prescribing, they don’t have. And so you feel like you are trying to put a tiny plaster on a big hemorrhage.”Photo:South Sudan 2012 © Robin Meldrum/MSF MSF doctor Kirrily de Polnay treating a child in the ‘emergency room’ of MSF’s clinic in Jamam refugee camp.

“It’s Really a Delicate Balance”: An MSF Doctor in the Jamam Refugee Camp

Dr. Kirrily de Polnay is working with Doctors Without Borders in the Jamam camp in an isolated region of South Sudan, where thousands of refugees from Sudan’s Blue Nile State are currently seeking sanctuary and the coming rainy season threatens to make delivering humanitarian aid even more challenging than it is now. Here, she talks about the situation in Jamam:

“We have so many cases of diarrhea and you’re trying to explain to them how to make the ORS [Oral Rehydration Solution] and they don’t have anything to make it in. Even I can find it hard to judge exactly half a sachet, and you tell them, “whatever you do you must drink water, you must drink the ORS we give you.” And they nod and say yes, but you know that they do not have enough water to really do that. They’ve only got a few liters a day. So what we are prescribing, they don’t have. And so you feel like you are trying to put a tiny plaster on a big hemorrhage.”

Photo:South Sudan 2012 © Robin Meldrum/MSF
MSF doctor Kirrily de Polnay treating a child in the ‘emergency room’ of MSF’s clinic in Jamam refugee camp.

We are safe from bombs here across the border. And now that we are no longer running to save our lives, we can think about our hunger, about all the necessities like soap for washing, clothes and food. For now, I have no ideas for the future, just sending the children to school and working to make sure I can feed them.
Young woman in Jamam who crossed the border only a few days after giving birth

Since November, some 80,000 refugees from Sudan’s Blue Nile State have sought shelter in two camps located in a remote and barren region of South Sudan where humanitarian organizations are confronting massive logistic challenges to access and assist them. Doctors Without Borders has been running a substantial emergency response, focusing on providing medical care in the camps and in mobile clinics to villages along the border with Sudan, where several thousand more refugees are gathered.
“Now There is Nothing”: Testimonies from Refugees in South Sudan Amani, who brought her daughter Harrap to the field hospital in Jamam for treatment: “The rainy season is coming. And the place we are living, it looks like it will be in the water. We need to find another place. I know this soil, and when the rains come this will be a swamp, this will be filled with water… This is a bad place. My daughter has diarrhea with blood. This problem has been going on for a long time now. It first started in the middle of the fighting. So now she has been ill for a long time. When the fighting started, there was no way for us to get treatment. We were just running, running, always running, until we got here. This is the first time I have been able to get some medical care for her. MSF is the first treatment we have got.”Photo: South Sudan 2012 © Robin Meldrum A mother with her child in the Doro refugee camp in South Sudan.

“Now There is Nothing”: Testimonies from Refugees in South Sudan

 Amani, who brought her daughter Harrap to the field hospital in Jamam for treatment:

“The rainy season is coming. And the place we are living, it looks like it will be in the water. We need to find another place. I know this soil, and when the rains come this will be a swamp, this will be filled with water… This is a bad place.

My daughter has diarrhea with blood. This problem has been going on for a long time now. It first started in the middle of the fighting. So now she has been ill for a long time. When the fighting started, there was no way for us to get treatment. We were just running, running, always running, until we got here. This is the first time I have been able to get some medical care for her. MSF is the first treatment we have got.”

Photo: South Sudan 2012 © Robin Meldrum
A mother with her child in the Doro refugee camp in South Sudan.

Burkina Faso: Assistance to Refugees from Mali in the North In the wake of violent clashes between Mali’s army and Tuareg rebels, nearly 20,000 Malians have fled their country and taken refuge in northern Burkina Faso. Most of the refugees are gathered in Oudalan, Seno and Soum Provinces. Doctors Without Borders is distributing water and food and assessing basic health care needs in the Mentao camp, which is near Djibo and which is now hosting 3,000 people, up from 1,000 people three weeks ago. “There has been a significant increase in the refugee population, and we are expecting to have 5,000 to 10,000 people in this camp in the coming weeks,” says Jean Hereu, MSF’s head of mission in Burkina Faso. MSF is distributing 50 cubic metres of water per day in Mentao. The teams are also providing food, having initially donated five tons of rice, red beans and oil, with more to come pending the start of an emergency response by the World Food Program (WFP). In the coming days, the teams will assess the medical needs of the refugees with Burkina Faso’s Ministry of Health. Photo:Burkina Faso © 2012 MSF MSF carried out a food distribution for Malian refugees in the Mentao camp in northern Burkina Faso.

Burkina Faso: Assistance to Refugees from Mali in the North

In the wake of violent clashes between Mali’s army and Tuareg rebels, nearly 20,000 Malians have fled their country and taken refuge in northern Burkina Faso. Most of the refugees are gathered in Oudalan, Seno and Soum Provinces. Doctors Without Borders is distributing water and food and assessing basic health care needs in the Mentao camp, which is near Djibo and which is now hosting 3,000 people, up from 1,000 people three weeks ago.

“There has been a significant increase in the refugee population, and we are expecting to have 5,000 to 10,000 people in this camp in the coming weeks,” says Jean Hereu, MSF’s head of mission in Burkina Faso.

MSF is distributing 50 cubic metres of water per day in Mentao. The teams are also providing food, having initially donated five tons of rice, red beans and oil, with more to come pending the start of an emergency response by the World Food Program (WFP). In the coming days, the teams will assess the medical needs of the refugees with Burkina Faso’s Ministry of Health.

Photo:Burkina Faso © 2012 MSF
MSF carried out a food distribution for Malian refugees in the Mentao camp in northern Burkina Faso.

Urgent Humanitarian Aid Needed For 80,000 Sudanese Refugees Driven by fighting in Sudan’s Blue Nile State, tens of thousands of refugees now in camps across the border in South Sudan need assistance before the looming rainy season renders the area impassable. “The refugees are left almost completely reliant on humanitarian assistance because the area has scarce water and food,” said Julien Matter, MSF emergency coordinator. “The sheer number of refugees fleeing here has grown far beyond anything anyone anticipated. Providing the bare survival essentials now, and over the coming rainy season, will be a serious challenge in such a remote place,” he said. Newly arriving refugees speak of ongoing bombing and fighting in Sudan’s Blue Nile State. While people have sought safety in the Doro and Jamam camps, they have encountered a harsh environment where their ability to survive is stretched to the breaking point.Photo: South Sudan 2012 © Robin Meldrum/MSF Refugees in the Jamam camp in South Sudan, after having fled fighting and bombing in Blue Nile State across the border in Sudan.

Urgent Humanitarian Aid Needed For 80,000 Sudanese Refugees

Driven by fighting in Sudan’s Blue Nile State, tens of thousands of refugees now in camps across the border in South Sudan need assistance before the looming rainy season renders the area impassable.

“The refugees are left almost completely reliant on humanitarian assistance because the area has scarce water and food,” said Julien Matter, MSF emergency coordinator. “The sheer number of refugees fleeing here has grown far beyond anything anyone anticipated. Providing the bare survival essentials now, and over the coming rainy season, will be a serious challenge in such a remote place,” he said.

Newly arriving refugees speak of ongoing bombing and fighting in Sudan’s Blue Nile State. While people have sought safety in the Doro and Jamam camps, they have encountered a harsh environment where their ability to survive is stretched to the breaking point.

Photo: South Sudan 2012 © Robin Meldrum/MSF
Refugees in the Jamam camp in South Sudan, after having fled fighting and bombing in Blue Nile State across the border in Sudan.

Greece: Extreme Weather Conditions Cause Suffering for Migrants in Border Police Stations The constant arrival of migrants in Greece’s Evros region, coupled with the extreme weather conditions of the past few weeks, has put pressure on the already fragile system for receiving migrants in the border police stations of Soufli, Tychero, and Feres, and in the detention center of Filakio. “The newly arrived migrants were spending up to a day in waiting areas in freezing temperatures,” says Antonio Virgilio, head of mission for Doctors Without Borders operations in Greece. “Migrants have already suffered harsh conditions on their journeys to cross the border,” he added. “Once in Greece, they had to wait for hours, without warm clothes to protect them from the extreme cold, and sometimes without receiving a medical check-up from Ministry of Health doctors.” There is no heating in the waiting areas of the three Evros border police stations, and migrants are not provided with extra clothes, sleeping bags, survival blankets, or other means of keeping warm. “The reception conditions are unacceptable,” says Virgilio. An emergency team from MSF has been responding to the migrants’ immediate needs in the three border police stations and in Filakio detention center. The team is on call 24 hours a day, conducting medical triage and providing migrants with warm clothes, sleeping bags, survival blankets, and hygiene kits. During the first four days of intervention, the MSF team assisted 125 migrants, including women and children, who arrived shivering, exhausted, and complaining of pain in their legs.Greece 2011 © MSF A small Afghan child, one of the many newly arrived migrants in the Evros region, is detained in a border police station.

Greece: Extreme Weather Conditions Cause Suffering for Migrants in Border Police Stations

The constant arrival of migrants in Greece’s Evros region, coupled with the extreme weather conditions of the past few weeks, has put pressure on the already fragile system for receiving migrants in the border police stations of Soufli, Tychero, and Feres, and in the detention center of Filakio.

“The newly arrived migrants were spending up to a day in waiting areas in freezing temperatures,” says Antonio Virgilio, head of mission for Doctors Without Borders operations in Greece.

“Migrants have already suffered harsh conditions on their journeys to cross the border,” he added. “Once in Greece, they had to wait for hours, without warm clothes to protect them from the extreme cold, and sometimes without receiving a medical check-up from Ministry of Health doctors.”

There is no heating in the waiting areas of the three Evros border police stations, and migrants are not provided with extra clothes, sleeping bags, survival blankets, or other means of keeping warm. “The reception conditions are unacceptable,” says Virgilio.

An emergency team from MSF has been responding to the migrants’ immediate needs in the three border police stations and in Filakio detention center. The team is on call 24 hours a day, conducting medical triage and providing migrants with warm clothes, sleeping bags, survival blankets, and hygiene kits. During the first four days of intervention, the MSF team assisted 125 migrants, including women and children, who arrived shivering, exhausted, and complaining of pain in their legs.

Greece 2011 © MSF A small Afghan child, one of the many newly arrived migrants in the Evros region, is detained in a border police station.