msf.org - 21 Dec 2020

The knock-on effects of COVID-19

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msf.org - 21 Dec 2020

MSF has been working in the Amhara Region of Ethiopia since 1997. Activities started in the hospital in the town of Humera in Tigray region, on the border to Sudan, and in 2003 shifted to nearby farming town in Amhara region. The focus of MSF in the region is the treatment, diagnosis and prevention of kala azar and snakebite - two neglected tropical diseases. In the area MSF mostly treated migrant workers, who work barefoot on the vast farms during harvest season in one of the most fertile regions in northern Ethiopia.

In early November, tensions between the national government in Addis Ababa and the northern region of Tigray escalated into a full-blown military conflict. One month into the conflict, the humanitarian situation continues to deteriorate.

On 5 November 2020, our MSF team in the Amhara region heard shelling and bombing of the first military escalation. They quickly started to support a Ministry of Health-run health centre receiving an influx of war wounded from the border areas. In just a few hours, the team had to switch from our regular medical project activities to emergency medical assistance for treating wounded. Within only a week, our team treated 265 casualties, many of them with severe war injuries.

Ethiopia Tigray crisis

“They saw soldiers and civilians coming in, wounded or dead”

MSF and Ministry of Health staff in Ethiopia’s Amhara region, next to Tigray, treated many people with severe injuries. It deeply affected them. Project Update - 18 Dec 2020

Harin Halil, a mother of two from Syria, is among the most severe patients of MSF in Samos.
“I became more scared in this camp. I was not like that before. I was not well but I wasn’t like now. I could talk, but now I cannot even talk in a normal way. Because of the fear I feel, every once in a while, I have a crisis (panic attack), for example when there is a fight in the camp, and that is happening very often, or when there is a fire in the camp, these incidents affect me a lot. I have deteriorated in here. During the last fire in Samos camp I felt like never left Syria. It was a very traumatic experience for me because the first time when Daesh attacked us, there were bombings and fire, so it reminded me a lot of what I experienced there.”

Greece

Alarming mental health distress among asylum seekers on Greek islands

Four months after the fire that destroyed Moria, 15,000 people are still trapped in inhumane conditions on Greece's islands. Project Update - 17 Dec 2020

Streets and shops in Dahst-e-Barchi neighborhood.

Afghanistan

Patients face persistent insecurity amid “peace process”

Persistent insecurity remains a near-constant barrier to accessing healthcare in Afghanistan and has increased since the intra-Afghan talks in Doha began. Project Update - 16 Dec 2020

MSF’s response is being led by three multidisciplinary health teams, with a focus on community shelters and people living on the streets. In addition to this, the services in regular MSF projects, sexual and reproductive health in Choloma and comprehensive healthcare for survivors of violence in Tegucigalpa, are still active.

The teams have identified the lack of access to priority sexual violence comprehensive medical care inside the shelters, and MSF is the only organisation caring for mental health in Choloma for people affected by the hurricanes.

Honduras

MSF steps up medical care in response to humanitarian crisis in Honduras

Hurricanes Eta and Iota have left 250,000 people in Honduras with limited access to healthcare. Many health centres are closed or not fully operational. Press Release - 16 Dec 2020

In Eshowe in South Africa’s KwaZulu-Natal Province, MSF assisted the department of health with establishing help desks outside clinics - triage points where all who wish to enter are screened using a screening tool, and possible COVID-19 patients are then referred to a separate tent for testing.

Access to medicines

Governments must act fast on consensus supporting historic move to suspend monopolies during pandemic

Ahead of an important World Trade Organisation meeting, MSF advocates consensus supporting move to suspend monopolies during COVID-19 pandemic. Press Release - 15 Dec 2020

Treating a child during an outreach activity in Maiduguri

Nigeria

Extra-long malaria season in Borno claims lives

MSF teams in Nigeria’s Borno state have witnessed a spike in malaria cases, even into the dry season. Project Update - 14 Dec 2020

Yemen

Civilians wounded and killed in indiscriminate frontline hostilities

Renewed conflict to the south of Hudaydah Port in Yemen has led to rising numbers of civilians needing war-trauma surgery. Most are women and children. Press Release - 14 Dec 2020

Switzerland, COVID-19 response in Intensive care unit of HUG. April 14, 2020. Â©Nora Teylouni / MSF

Photo story

A year in pictures 2020

MSF's A Year in Pictures collection for 2020 looks back on 12 months of providing medical care in extreme conditions and contexts across the globe. Photo Story - 11 Dec 2020

Four mothers posing in a corridor of the Hospital in Bili. All four of them are staying in the hospital with their child, that's suffering from a severe case of malaria. Since the beginning of the project in 2016, the pediatric ward already treated more than 4.000 cases of complicated/severe form of malaria.

Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF)

Independent medical humanitarian assistance

We provide medical assistance to people affected by conflict, epidemics, disasters, or exclusion from healthcare. Our teams are made up of tens of thousands of health professionals, logistic and administrative staff - most of them hired locally. Our actions are guided by medical ethics and the principles of independence and impartiality. We are a non-profit, self-governed, member-based organisation.

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