March 22, 2006
The Sudanese region of Darfur continues to suffer from insecurity and instability. Médecins du Monde has embarked on a new project; rolling out mobile clinics which will allow it to offer access to healthcare for those living in Thur, Nyama and Tarontawara in the Jebel Mara region.
For several weeks now, violence has been escalating across Darfur, touching the entire region and its people. The division amongst the region's key rebel alliances, surfacing of community and intertribal tensions, and the recent breach of the border with Chad have had disastrous consequences for the population, exposing them directly to conflict and depriving them of humanitarian aid.
In response to this situation, Médecins du Monde has rolled out primary care services to the remote areas in North Nyala, reaching the forgotten populations of Thur, Nyama and Tarontawra in the Jebel Mara. The work will serve around 40,000 people, both residents and displaced people from varied ethnic backgrounds, nomadic and settled. An expatriate team made up of a doctor, nurse, and midwife, working in collaboration with a medical employee from Sudan will offer medical consultations, pre and post natal services, vaccination services, screening children for malnutrition and carrying out monitoring to detect epidemics.
Since July 2004, Médecins du Monde has provided a primary medical care centre in the Kalma refugee camp, South Darfur. In order to respond to the huge influx of people coming in to the camp, and concern about the high risk of epidemic that this brings, Médecins du Monde has continually developed its medical activities. During 2005, the combined efforts of the international groups present at the camp meant that sanitary conditions were stabilised. However, the personal security of those present in the camp is still of great concern. The most vulnerable displaced people, notably women, are faced not only with ongoing instability and little hope of returning home, but often find themselves victims of violence.
With the addition of the new mobile clinics to the ongoing work of Médecins du Monde, impartial access to healthcare will be offered to those groups who are unable to travel for fear of attack, or even death.
Since 2003, the conflict in Darfur has claimed 300,000 lives, and two million people have become displaced, approximately a third of the population.
MdM press office:
Florence Priolet - Annabelle Quénet
00 33 (0)1 44 92 14 31/14 32
www.medecinsdumonde.org