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MSF provides healthcare and medical services to people in Chad who have been forced to flee their homes by the frequent violence that occurs in this area. View this slideshow.
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Crisis in Chad. While many peopled have already returned to N'djamena further aid is reaching the thousands of refugees that still remain in the border town of Kousseri in Cameroon.
Activities 2008
The various armed conflicts that marked the first half of 2008 left Chad fearing a troubled year ahead. In fact, while the rest of the year proved less tense, Chad remained a highly unstable country. Insecurity continued to affect many of the people living there and to hamper humanitarian work.
Violence and displacement
Confrontations between government forces and rebels, lawlessness and banditry mean that for many people exposure to violence is part of everyday life. The conflict between rebel and government forces reached a peak in February, when the capital N’djamena came under attack.
An MSF surgical team supported N’djamena Bon Samaritain hospital, treating 126 wounded and performing more than 80 operations. Emergency assistance was also offered to victims of fighting in Ade and Gozbeida in April and June.
In eastern Chad alone, an estimated 185,000 Chadians who have been forced to flee their homes and 250,000 refugees from neighbouring Darfur still live in camps, and there is no short-term prospect of them returning to their villages.
MSF worked to meet the basic medical needs of people in Iridimi and Touloum refugee camps, in Iriba hospital and Tine health centre. More than 71,000 consultations and 140 surgical operations were carried out and and 1,000 babies were delivered. In the refugee camps in Arkoum, Farchana and Breijing, more than 44,300 consultations, including nutritional interventions, took place. As the health emergency subsided, MSF was able to hand over projects in Farchana, Arkoum and Breijing in June 2008, and will hand over the Iridimi and Touloum projects to partners in 2009.
MSF's surgical team at Adre hospital continues to treat Sudanese refugees arriving in Chad, as well as the local population
Photo by Thomas Dandois
In Adre, Guereda, and Abéché, however, despite MSF’s continuing interventions, healthcare for Chadian people and Sudanese refugees is still inadequate. MSF focused its efforts in these areas on healthcare for women and children, and implemented a surgical programme to treat obstetric fistula.
MSF continued to provide assistance at Adre’s health facilities, where almost 2,400 people were admitted. More than 56,000 outpatient consultations were provided in Guereda district’s health centres, including in Birak, where approximately 10,000 new Sudanese refugees arrived early in the year.
Further south, MSF provided healthcare to 80,000 displaced people and residents in the villages of Gozbeida, Kerfi and Ade. The mobile clinics in Kerfi and Ade began providing inpatient facilities in early 2008. More than 81,800 consultations were carried out and an additional 1,700 people were treated for malnutrition. The situation in Gassire camp in Gozbeida has stabilised, so MSF will hand over the camp’s clinic to partners in 2009.
In Dogdoré, a remote village in the district worst affected by the internal conflict, MSF has been providing medical assistance to 27,000 displaced people and 3,000 residents since July 2006. In 2008, 25,000 consultations were carried out, 1,000 patients were admitted to hospital, and 600 severely malnourished children were admitted to the MSF nutritional centre. In addition, 3,000 antenatal consultations took place and 350 babies were delivered.
However, repeated security incidents forced MSF to reduce the size of the team and eventually evacuate all international staff from the projects in October. Local staff were able to maintain some basic health services during this time, and international staff began returning at the beginning of 2009.
Support in the southwest
In the southwest of the country, MSF continued to support Goré’s hospital, responding to the healthcare needs of about 30,000 refugees from Central African Republic (CAR) and 137,000 residents of the Goré district. Overall, MSF provided 20,000 consultations, 4,300 hospital admissions and 1,000 surgical operations.
Between May and October, following the arrival of about 5,000 refugees from CAR, MSF provided emergency water supplies, primary and perinatal health consultations and measles vaccinations for children under five years old. Patients in need of hospital care were referred to a nearby Ministry of Health hospital.
After 25 years, MSF left Bongor in December 2008, handing the city hospital over to the Ministry of Health. In 2008 alone, around 154,000 malaria cases were treated, 5,815 patients came for medical consultations, 1,440 babies were delivered and 850 surgical operations were conducted.
In 2008, MSF also responded to epidemic outbreaks throughout the country. Following outbreaks of measles, MSF immunised more than 11,000 children in Goré and approximately 15,000 children in Adre. The population of Abéché was also vaccinated in early 2009.
MSF has worked in Chad since 1981.