Posts tagged sudan
They come from Sudan, Somalia and Ethiopia. They are young adults and unaccompanied minors, pregnant women and entire families. They gather here in Ventimiglia, Italy, a small town on the Mediterranean coast, major transit point for refugees, and final frontier of the dangerous journey to Europe.
As many migrate north to nations like France and Germany, they pass through Ventimiglia, but recent increased policing along the borders here has prevented people from crossing successfully. As a result, the population of refugees and migrants is growing. With camps full, people look to the urban landscape for shelter, sleeping under bridges and overpasses. Some even sleep along the banks of the Roia river.
Citizens engaged: citizens on both sides of the border have stepped up to help the growing population. In Ventimiglia, Sant Antonio church has transformed into a temporary shelter and food kitchen; local bars offer refugees meal discounts and free electricity to charge their phones, since makeshift shelters lack power. MSF began collaborating with these local efforts in fall of last year to provide care for migrants in transit, especially for expectant mothers and to address the effects of mental trauma. Often, the trauma from the migration route leaves individuals with feelings of depression, abandonment and anxiety.
While people wait for the next step in Ventimiglia, not every asylum claim is approved by the government. When these applications are denied, the options are limited, though a last effort remains: to walk the five miles from Ventimiglia into France, a journey along the highway known as the “Pass of Death.” Since September, 10 have died on this route attempting to cross the border, and some, avoiding the highway altogether, travel along the equally dangerous railroad or mountain path instead. It is along this route that Roya Citoyenne, a local community group across the French border, has created a temporary shelter where, if only for a moment, refugees can safely rest as they seek their final destination.
“Needless to say I have never seen it before, nor has my more experienced colleague.”
Dr. Shadi Abdelrahman is a young surgeon from Cairo. he just finished his first mission with MSF, in a hospital in Agok, Abyei, an area with special administrative status located between Sudan and South Sudan. Even though this was his first mission for MSF, it was not his first foray into field work. He talks about his experience of delivering a miraculous baby girl in his first-ever Caesarean section.
Read more here: http://blogs.msf.org/en/staff/blogs/a-surgeon-in-the-field/a-pleasant-surprise
Peter has grown up as a refugee - he first fled Sudan for Ethiopia when he was a child. Today, he lives in a refugee camp in South Sudan where he works for Doctors Without Borders as a translator. He does not believe his dreams will ever be realized, but he has hope for the next generation.
photo by Juan-Carlos Tomasi
Darfur: “Every Time You Are Able to Save a Patient it Gives You the Motivation to Save Another Life”
“We received about 34 injured people the first instance of violence, on February 8. The hospital did not have surgical supplies and the MSF medical cargo had not arrived yet. We had one emergency box for the MSF team’s personal use, just in case. We used all of the surgical supplies in that box, including material for dressings and drugs for surgeries. We also used all the drugs in the hospital. The hospital’s doctor and I performed the surgeries, we worked as a team. We also had to carry out a blood transfusion for one of the patients; we did not have a fridge, so it was done immediately. - Read more at http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/news/article.cfm?id=6813&source=ads120000R01
Civilians are leaving Sudan’s South Kordofan state due to a lack of food and supplies and because of the ongoing conflict. South Sudan 2013 © Yann Libessart
A Critical Situation for Sudanese Refugees in Yida
Civilians have been fleeing the conflict between Sudanese government forces and rebels from the North Sudanese People Liberation Movement (SPLM-North) in Sudan’s South Kordofan region since June 2011. The only option for many displaced people is to seek refuge in the camp of Yida, just on the other side of the border in South Sudan. As Yida’s population continues to grow, the camp’s location has become a source of complex political tensions that increasingly threaten the condition of the refugees.
2am “Oncall, oncall for ICU – we have one child yes, they are convulsions…” I jolt into wakefulness and am out of my bed and running over to the hospital as fast as I can go telling the nurses to prepare IV diazepam down the radio as I go. This could be anything, but always think worst case scenario… I arrive on the ward and yes, this is actual convulsions, a four-year-old with cerebral malaria.
Photo: Refugees displaced by violence in Darfur have settled in Tissi. Chad 2013 © MSF.
Chad: More than 10,000 Refugees Arrive in Tissi Within a Few Days
Roughly 25,000 refugees and returnees had already been living in and around five villages in southeastern Chad for nearly three months. But starting on April 4, 2013, an additional 10,000 began to arrive, having fled violent clashes in Um Dukhun, Sudan, 10 kilometers [about 6 miles] away from the border. And there’s every indication that more are on their way.
They tell similar stories, of villages attacked and set on fire by armed men on horseback, of neighbors and family members killed, of women and children abandoning all their belongings and taking flight. Fighting resumed between several Arab tribes of North and Central Darfur States a few months ago, but the situation has deteriorated dramatically in recent days.
Photo: Refugees displaced by fighting in North Darfur state wait for treatment. Sudan 2010 © Juan-Carlos Tomasi
Treating the Wounded After Fighting in Sudan’s North Darfur State
Photo: A mother and child survey the wreckage of a market destroyed in a bombing attack in North Darfur. Sudan 2009 © Jan-Joseph Stok
Darfur: “After a Decade of Fighting There Are Still Medical Needs”
Tribal clashes over the ownership of a gold mine have already forced nearly 100,000 people from their homes in the Jebel Amir region of Sudan’s North Darfur this year. A decade has passed since the Darfur conflict began, and there are still dire medical needs in the region. Despite efforts to provide medical humanitarian aid to the people of Darfur, there is still more work to do, says Fernando Medina, our MSF head of mission in Sudan.
Fighting Neglected Disease Sleeping Sickness in South Sudan
Sleeping sickness has been a major health problem in South Sudan for the last century. Transmitted by the tse tse fly, it can be fatal if left untreated. Over a ten-week period, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) mobile teams based in Kajo Keji traveled to remote villages where patients have little access to medical care, screening over 37,000 people for the disease and providing treatment to
Many memories of South Sudan will remain with me forever. Sad memories of seeing first-hand the dire circumstances many people have to endure or of witnessing the death of a small child. Disturbing images like seeing a small boy play with an imitation AK47 possibly trying to mimic his father or other men. But mostly happy memories of seeing a mother’s joy when her child gets better, the appreciation of our staff for training and coaching given, the surprise on people’s faces when I talked to them in my few words of Nuer, of working together with the rest of the team and of the beautiful sunsets.
Photo: A doctor does his rounds in MSF’s Hepatitis E ward in Maban County’s Batil camp. South Sudan 2013 © Corinne Baker/MSF
MSF Responds To Hepatitis E Outbreak In South Sudan Refugee Camps
An epidemic of hepatitis E is escalating across refugee camps in South Sudan’s Maban County. To date, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has treated 3,991 patients in its health facilities in the camps and has recorded 88 deaths, including 15 pregnant women.
Hepatitis E is a virus that causes liver disease and can lead to acute liver failure and death. It is particularly dangerous for pregnant women. Like cholera, the virus spreads in environments with poor sanitation and contaminated water. There is no cure, but its symptoms are treatable.
“We have been doing everything we can to care for people with hepatitis E, but there is no treatment for the disease,” says Dr. José-Luis Dvorzak, MSF Medical Coordinator in Maban County. “We suspect this outbreak is far from over, and many more people will die.”
Photo: Sudanese refugees wait in line in the outpatient department at the MSF field hospital in Jamam refugee camp. South Sudan 2012 © Paula Bronstein/Getty Images
Fear and Hope in South Sudan as Refugees Start to Cross Border Again
More than 170,000 people who fled violence in Sudan are living in refugee camps in South Sudan. Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has been assisting the refugees since November 2011, running field hospitals and providing supplies of clean drinking water and oral rehydration fluids.
Now that the floods caused by the rainy season are subsiding refugees are starting to cross the border again. In December 2012, around 370 refugees arrived at the border village of El Fuj, traveling in two groups and arriving a few days apart. This is a small number compared to last year, when 35,000 people crossed the border in the space of just three weeks. Time will tell if the numbers will increase.
While the camps in South Sudan provide relative safety, refugees living there face dire conditions. There are still shortages of clean water—at times, 40 percent of medical consultations carried out by MSF were related to diarrhea—and there are ongoing occurrences of Hepatitis E. In Batil Camp (which hosts around 35,000 refugees), mortality rates were more than double emergency thresholds in summer 2012, and more than a quarter of the children under the age of five weremalnourished. Since September 2012, conditions have improved in many areas and mortality rates have dropped, but nutrition and food security are still serious concerns.
A Month in Focus: December 2012
Reports on treating TB in Chechnya, fighting Yaws in Congo, working with displaced civilians in DRC and South Sudan, and battling cholera in Haiti in the wake of Hurricane Sandy.
With this clinic we definitely saved lives. People were in real difficulties in the bush: not enough food, mosquitoes biting people, everyone drinking very bad water. Our clinic was not perfect, but it was better than nothing, and we saved lives.
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