2-10 | Following the displacement of people as a result of violence in neighbouring Mali, close to 10,000 Malians have found refuge in the Tillabéry region in Niger.A team from the medical humanitarian organisation Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) travelled to the area to evaluate the most pressing needs in the town of Tchinagodar. Team members were particularly concerned by the extreme vulnerability of the refugees as well as the very poor living conditions of the resident population.
12-14 | The registered number of refugees gathering at the tiny village of Doro, as of December 7, was 21,500 and increasing daily. Anywhere from 500 to 1,000 newcomers are registering every day. The walk from their homelands in Blue Nile State, Sudan (north), took anywhere from one week to one month. Although the work to set up a properly organised refugee camp is under way, no family groups arriving at the gathering point at Doro have yet been allocated a plot.
12-6 | 60 years of the Convention relating to the Status of RefugeesThis week, world leaders will gather in Geneva to commemorate 60 years of the Convention relating to the Status of Refugees. Yet it is an anniversary that the world’s 15.1 million refugees have little reason to celebrate. Today, states are increasingly shutting their borders and restricting the assistance they give to refugees and people seeking asylum.
11-28 | In the second half of 2011, MSF witnessed increased insecurity in the camps located near Dadaab, Kenya. The kidnapping of two MSF international staff members in October forced the organisation to halt activities in Ifo camp and to temporarily reduce services in Dagahaley camp to life-saving activities in the hospital only.Despite the situation, MSF medical teams never stopped providing medical care in the biggest refugee camp in the world, and MSF has now resumed all medical activities in Dagahaley.
11-3 | “The emergency is far from over,” says MSF.Unless the capacity to deliver aid is rapidly increased, there will be significant problems in meeting the needs of Somalis fleeing to Ethiopia, the international medical humanitarian organisation MSF said today.