Severe flooding is affecting an estimated 800,000 people across a wide swathe of South Sudan, inundating homes and leaving people without adequate food, water or shelter. Many areas have been flooded since July and rising river levels are worsening the crisis. Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is providing medical care in flood-affected areas of … Read more
Five search and rescue boats detained, including MSF’s Sea-Watch 4, in five months. Here are five things to know about the current situation with search and rescue in the Mediterranean sea. 1. European governments are preventing rescue ships from saving lives The Sea-Watch 4, the search and rescue vessel operated by Sea-Watch and Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), was detained … Read more
Palestine is experiencing a spike in COVID-19 cases, both in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Of the more than 43,000 cases confirmed in the West Bank since the start of the pandemic, more than a third have been in Hebron governorate [1]. Since August 2020, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has been supporting local health … Read more
The COVID-19 pandemic has become very alarming in Iraq, with the country currently reporting close to 4,000 new cases every day and around 500 deaths a week. Over the past month alone, more than 100,000 cases have been identified in the country. And on 23 September, 5,055 new COVID-19 cases were confirmed, representing the highest daily rate in … Read more
Northwest Syria is currently witnessing a sharp increase in the number of patients with COVID-19, which is now ten times higher than what it was just a month ago. As of 22 September, 640 people had tested positive for the new coronavirus in the region, almost 30 per cent of them health workers. Eighty new cases were recorded on 14 … Read more
Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is calling on the Greek and the EU authorities to stop their efforts to rebuild a new system of containment for refugees and asylum seekers on the island of Lesbos, Greece, and to break once and for all the cycle of suffering for people trapped on the Greek islands. European states … Read more
The hospital in Batangafo – a town of 31,000 people, including 22,000 displaced from elsewhere in the Central African Republic – is bustling with activity. While a particular focus has been placed on infection prevention and control measures to identify and isolate people with suspected cases of COVID-19, another deadly disease has a much heavier impact on the … Read more
Nearly 12,000 men, women and children have been forced to evacuate Moria refugee camp, on the island of Lesbos, Greece, after a fire tore through the camp during the night of 8 September. While the fire is not believed to have caused any deaths, the camp was almost completely burned down, and people are now on the … Read more
In late-August, India surpassed the three-million-mark of people infected by COVID-19. Maharashtra has reported the highest number of COVID-19 cases in the country, with more than a quarter of the total. Two in three of these were in the city of Mumbai. Mumbai, formerly known as Bombay, is one of the most densely populated cities … Read more
