A hospital is where the most vulnerable, the sick and injured, gather in times of war. Attacks against medical facilities and health workers, whether deliberate or indiscriminate, are part of generalised violence and atrocities committed against civilians in armed conflict. They deprive populations of health services, often when they need them the most.
Since 2018, MSF has been running a 24/7 ambulance service, community-level care and support to health facilities in the two regions. In 2020, almost 9,000 referrals were completed through the ambulance service. However, in December 2020, MSF medical services were suspended by Cameroon’s authorities in the North-West Region; this suspension has not been lifted.
Over 270 people were reported killed in riots and looting that also disrupted access to crucial healthcare services, food, fuel and other essentials. Trucks, stores and shopping malls were burned and looted, as well as 90 pharmacies and some medical centres.
Over the past six months, MSF teams have witnessed dozens of health facilities ransacked, damaged and occupied by armed men. Armed incursions into hospitals have seen patients subjected to violence, physical abuse, interrogation and arrest.
MSF is therefore calling on community leaders, political leaders, the South African government security cluster and the Presidency of South Africa to take immediate steps to safeguard the right to healthcare and safety of patients, healthcare workers, medical infrastructure and supplies to avert a drastic escalation of the current COVID-19 driven healthcare crisis.
MSF is still unclear on the details of what happened or who is behind this terrible act. Erroneous reporting can put both our patients and staff in serious and immediate danger.
Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) calls for an immediate investigation into the killings of three of its staff in Tigray.
María Hernández, Yohannes Halefom and Tedros Gebremariam were killed on 24 June in Tigray, Ethiopia. Their colleagues from Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) remember them.
A hospital is where the most vulnerable, the sick and injured, gather in times of war. Attacks against medical facilities and health workers, whether deliberate or indiscriminate, are part of generalised violence and atrocities committed against civilians in armed conflict. They deprive populations of health services, often when they need them the most.
