Between humanitarian crises and medical emergencies: all the latest news

In Sudan, staff and patients are repeatedly facing the trauma of armed groups entering and looting MSF premises with medicines, supplies and vehicles being stolen. This shocking disregard for humanitarian principles and international humanitarian law has impeded our ability to provide healthcare to people at a time when it is desperately needed.

More people than ever recorded are currently forcibly displaced from their homes by conflict, human rights violations, climate change, and the economic consequences resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. Across Europe, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) continues to witness people fleeing crisis being left to drown at sea, intercepted and pushed back at borders, denied humanitarian assistance, and criminalized for seeking safety.

On May 11, when the Biden administration ends the COVID-19 public health emergency nationally, Title 42, a public health order used to shut down asylum at the US southern border for more than three years, officially comes to an end.

In just two weeks, more than 670 victims of sexual violence have been treated by Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) teams in camps for displaced people around Goma, the provincial capital of North Kivu, representing 48 new victims per day. These shocking figures reflect the extreme vulnerability and risk of violence faced by displaced people in the area. Nearly 60% of the victims were attacked less than 72 hours before coming to MSF clinics, illustrating the urgency of the situation.

Burkina Faso is experiencing an unprecedented humanitarian crisis that has seen 1.99 million internally displaced people flee violence perpetrated by jihadist groups (OCHA, 31 March 2023). The northern town of Djibo has now been under blockade by non-state armed groups for over a year and remains largely cut off from food and aid.

In 2020, Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) opened a clinic in Beirut providing migrant domestic workers with free-of-charge health consultations and specialist mental health support. Three years later, MSF teams continue to see the impact of the Kafala system on people’s living and working conditions as well as on their physical and mental health.

The situation for migrants at the border between Nicaragua and Honduras has worsened in recent weeks. Since the beginning of March, a new wave of people has been crossing the borders of eastern Honduras. According to figures from Honduras National Migration Institute (INM), from January to March more than 30,000 people have entered the country irregularly between the municipalities of Trojes and Danli, both border points with Nicaragua. In view of this situation, Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) mobile clinics continue to travel to these areas to provide medical and humanitarian assistance to people on the move.

Unprecedented numbers of malnourished children in need of lifesaving treatment are being brought to therapeutic feeding centres run by the international medical organisation Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) in Maiduguri, the capital of Nigeria’s Borno state, in northeast Nigeria. MSF is warning of an impending catastrophe if immediate action is not taken.

Everywhere in the country, and especially in Khartoum, Darfur, North Kordofan and Gedaref states, our teams face serious challenges. Our premises in Nyala, South Darfur, have been looted – including one of our warehouses. In Khartoum, most teams are trapped by the ongoing heavy fighting and are unable to access warehouses to deliver vital medical supplies to hospitals. In Khartoum, even ambulances are being turned back. They are not being permitted to pass in order to retrieve the bodies of the dead from the streets – or to transport those who have been injured to hospital.

As tens of thousands of people have returned to the town of Mocímboa da Praia over the past months, Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has established a medical project to assist vulnerable groups in the northern Mozambican district.