Political turmoil and the arrival of COVID-19 has left Myanmar’s healthcare system shattered. With 2021 coming to an end, our team on the ground look back at our COVID-19 response, reflecting on what we can be proud of and what we could have done better; the dilemmas, limits and the sometimes-uncomfortable solutions. Myanmar’s public healthcare … Read more
Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) calls on Myanmar’s de facto military government, and other groups, to take all steps to ensure people have safe and unhindered access to healthcare, regardless of where they seek it. Equally, medical staff must be able to provide lifesaving care without attacks, detention or intimidation. As Myanmar approaches four … Read more
Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is gravely concerned about the recent unlawful arrests and detainment of healthcare workers, and people from the wider general public, following the military coup in Myanmar on 1 February 2021. The arrests, and the widespread restrictions following the recently imposed ‘state of emergency’, have the potential to severely interrupt the … Read more
“Spending our lives in the camps is difficult; the area is small and there is no space for the children to play,” says Abu Siddik. He lives in one of the camps in the Cox’s Bazar district of southeastern Bangladesh, where around 860,000 Rohingya refugees are crammed into just 26 square kilometres of land. “I left Myanmar because … Read more
Sitting in a teashop in Kutupalong mega-camp, Bibi Jan tugs on her sleeve. She’s covering up scars inflicted during the largest-ever episode of violence against the Rohingya, in August 2017. She tells us of the events that forced her to flee to Bangladesh: her two brothers were killed, she herself was stabbed, and her village … Read more