Posted on 19 November, 2012

Photo: Left to Right: Faces from MSF’s Amman project: Ali Abdel al-Kharim, a 13-year-old Iraqi from Baghdad, was severely burned on his face, arms, and legs when a car bomb exploded as he walked to school; Khanda Faraj Mohammed, 27, from Kirkuk, sustained severe burns on her neck, chest, stomach, arms, and hands when a car bomb exploded at the market where she shopped; Waleed Azziz Mohammed, 26, from Dahouk, was badly burned on his face and neck when he was hit by a rocket. Jordan 2011 © J.B. Russell

Field Journal: A Regional Surgical Center

Patricia Kahn, MSF-USA’s medical editor, recently visited MSF’s surgical program in Amman, Jordan, which treats patients from throughout the Middle East.

Patients in the Amman program are civilians wounded by bombs, explosions, or gunshots in conflicts across the region. They have severe, complicated injuries that were not treated right away, or couldn’t be treated properly in their home country. Injuries such as bones that aren’t just broken, but shattered. Burns over much of the body. Many also have life-threatening bone infections, often with antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

Photo: Looted and burned houses in Pinga after fighting between armed groups caused the majority of the town’s population—together with many of MSF’s Congolese staff—to flee the area in October. DRC 2012 © MSF

Violence in North Kivu, DRC, Displaces Thousands, Forces Majority of MSF Personnel to Evacuate

Active fighting has hit the town of Pinga in the North Kivu Province of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) once again, forcing 20,000 inhabitants and the majority of Congolese personnel employed by MSF to flee for the second time in six weeks.

Armed groups have clashed in the last few days, causing widespread panic and alarm in the area. Fearing for their lives, people grabbed whatever they could carry and ran into the surrounding forests. While displaced from their homes and villages, people’s access to health care is extremely limited. Some of those wounded in the fighting were brought to the MSF-run hospital 50 kilometers [about 31 miles] away in Mweso where doctors treated 24 people for violent trauma. Twelve more managed to reach the Mpeti health center 18 kilometers [about 11 miles] away from Pinga.

“What we see in Pinga is the tip of the iceberg,” said Grace Tang, MSF head of mission. “This kind of violence and mass displacement is happening throughout the province of North Kivu. We’re trying to respond as best we can in very difficult and challenging circumstances.”