DRC
The Democratic Republic of Congo is suffering from extremely poor health indicators, with a very high level of endemic malnutrition and many epidemic outbreaks.
The Democratic Republic of Congo is suffering from extremely poor health indicators, with a very high level of endemic malnutrition and many epidemic outbreaks.
Alima runs a project in the management of malnutrition in children, with the aim to reduce the mortality rate in the under five population.
In Mali, a West African country with a population of 13 million people, malaria is the main cause of mortality among children.
The powerful earthquake that struck Haiti in January 2010 left healthcare in the impoverished nation in even worse shape than before. Medical facilities were severely affected, as 60% of existing health structures were destroyed by the earthquake.
As different armed groups have taken control of the whole of the north of Mali, including it’s three major towns, Kidal, Gao and Timbuctoo, the medical teams of the international humanitarian NGO, ALIMA (The Alliance for International Medical Action) continue their intervention in the region of Timbuctoo.
Since the beginning of March, ALIMA teams have carried out a series of mobile clinics. 2 400 patients have been treated, 200 of whom have acute malnutrition. The most frequent medical conditions seen have been diarrhoea, respiratory infections and skin complaints related to the lack of access to water and sanitation. The health system has become extremely fragile.
From the 2nd April our medical and paramedical teams have supported the hospital in Timbuctoo. Today the hospital is managed by a handful of doctors, nurses and pharmacists. There is a dire need of qualified medical personnel, just as much so for access to water, food and drugs. Twenty patients are currently hospitalised, including two new twins born last night. Other medical conditions include pregnant women, malnourished children and 7 people who have gunshot wounds, one of whom died. The team are also conducting thirty out-patient consultations per day. These numbers seem trivial considering that the hospital is the only medical structure in the town.
If the attendance at the hospital remains limited, it is because Timbuctoo is emptying. Certain neighborhoods have been deserted and there are thousands of people leaving the town carrying bags on their heads. They are taking refuge in villages on the other side of the river such as Doya or Hodobo.
This new deplacement of people is very alarming. All of these villages, already in a very precarious situation, are likely to see their number of inhabitants double or triple, and access to food and water is already limited. The food insecurity is sharply rising, even more so as the conflict may destabilise the harvest this year.
Aziz, our coordinator in Timbuctoo has already noted serious malnutrition, which is unusual in this population : <<The lack of pasture required to feed animals and the lack of access to markets has had a direct impact on the nutritional state of these nomadic people. What is really worrying is that this population are usually the least affected by malnutrition.>>
Our teams are dreading a worsening of the food security, nutrition and santitation situations, just as much as the displaced themselves and the indigenous population who are receiving them. Furthermore, a case of measles has already been detected ; with this high population density the risk of an epidemic is more than likely.
<<Substantial humanitarian aid must be deployed urgently, in this region already affected by the food crisis which is happening in the Sahel>>, Thierry Allafort-Duverger, Director General, ALIMA, from Dakar.
ALIMA is an international humanitarian NGO. ALIMA centralises a pool of medical NGOs, present particularly in the Sahel region
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