The 10 Most Underreported Stories 2001
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Skip to: Burundi
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urundi> | Chechnya
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hechnya> | China
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hina> | Colombia
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olombia> | DRC
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rc> | Neglected
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d> Diseases | Refugees
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efugees> | Somalia
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omalia> | Sri
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rilanka> Lanka | West
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estafrica> Africa
burundi Burundi
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Copyright MSF
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_burundi2.jpg> The population of Burundi has suffered from ongoing civil
war since 1993. About one-sixth of the population-or 800,000 people-have
been either voluntarily or forcibly displaced by the ongoing conflict. This
massive population displacement has exacerbated the spread of disease and
malnutrition in many parts of the country. In September 2000, a severe
malaria epidemic hit Burundi. Before the epidemic ran its course by the
early summer of 2001, more than 3 million cases had been counted in a
population of 6.5 million people. The disease reached epidemic proportions
in 9 of the country's 16 provinces: in November alone, 720,000 people fell
ill countrywide. Between the onset of the epidemic and the end of the crisis
in April 2001, MSF treated more than 1,200,000 patients and sprayed more
than 30,000 homes in an effort to control the mosquitoes that spread the
disease. If the epidemic's direct causes were natural-a deadly mix of
parasite-carrying mosquitoes and climatic factors-its indirect causes were
man-made. Virtually all vector control was stopped in 1993, the year the
country fell into war.
More
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about Burundi from the MSF 2001 Activity Report
chechnya
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Copyright Kadir van Lohuizen/Agence VU
<http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/images/publications/reports/2002/top10
_chechnya2.jpg> The welfare of thousands of Chechens who have fled the
conflict in their homeland for refuge in the neighboring Republic of
Ingushetia worsened over the course of 2001. As intense fighting continued
inside Chechnya for a third year, attention and sympathy have waned for the
estimated 150,000 displaced Chechens currently living in collective centers,
with host families, and in tent camps in Ingushetia. Since February 2001,
the Russian federal government has insisted that new arrivals from Chechnya,
estimated at as many as 500,000 in 2001, are "economic refugees" and
ineligible for federal aid. Many of the displaced are living in deplorable
conditions because host families have evicted those who can no longer pay
rent and shelters are ill-prepared for winter conditions. A recent MSF
survey of 440 families living in 70 of the 188 settlements throughout
Ingushetia, as well as of 150 families living with Ingush hosts in the city
of Malgobeck, found that 80% of the displaced shared latrines with at least
20 other people. In one tent camp in the city of Nazran, more than 430
people shared one latrine. More than 50% of those living in host families
had no more than three square meters of space per person-well below
international standards for refugees and displaced (3.5-4.5 square meters).
More than half of those surveyed living in tent camps inhabited tents that
had leaky roofs and holes in the walls-amid harsh winter conditions. The
ongoing fighting in Chechnya and the condition of displaced civilians inside
Chechnya and in Ingushetia have received scarce attention from the media and
the international community in the past year.
More
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about Chechnya from the MSF 2001 Activity Report
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2000.html> Chechnya: The Politics of Terror, an MSF Special Report, Nov.
2000
china
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In the spring of 2001, China launched a "strike hard" campaign to crack down
on "illegal migrants" along the Sino-Korean border. The new policy has
worsened the already-precarious situation of as many as hundreds of
thousands of North Koreans who have fled to China from their famine-stricken
country. Thousands of refugees have been rounded up and forced to return to
North Korea where they face possible persecution including interrogation,
"reeducation," imprisonment, and even capital punishment. China has
increased the fines and prison terms for Chinese and ethnic Koreans who
offer assistance to North Korean refugees in China, and inhabitants of the
border region have been mobilized to denounce North Koreans and the people
sheltering them. North Korean refugees live in constant fear of being caught
and forced to return to the oppressive humanitarian conditions in their
country. Chinese authorities continue to refuse permission for aid agencies
to reach North Korean refugees in the border areas.
More
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about China from the MSF 2001 Activity Report
colombia
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Copyright Mike Goldwater/Network Armenia
<http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/images/publications/reports/2002/top10
_colombia2.jpg> Massacres, kidnappings, extortion, and roadblocks are an
everyday fact of life in Colombia, particularly in the countryside.
Combatants from the government and rebel groups are engaged in an undeclared
civil war that has had devastating effects on the civilian population
trapped in the middle. Health care centers have been destroyed or lack the
medical staff, drugs, and material necessary to offer adequate care. The
exodus of displaced people toward cities is ongoing. In the urban
areas-so-called "invasion slums"-where the displaced settle, they are again
confronted with violence and lack basic services such as health care, clean
drinking water, and sanitation facilities. Nearly 2 million people have been
pushed from their homes since 1985, with more than 300,000 people displaced
in 2000 alone. In isolated villages, acute diarrheal diseases and
respiratory infections, malaria, and skin diseases are common, and basic
health needs including vaccinations, reproductive health care, and
prevention of malaria and dengue fever are rarely addressed. Despite the
conflict's impact on the population, the international community has paid
scarce attention to the needs of civilians in Colombia; the war is not
recognized as such and neighboring states have returned Colombians seeking
refuge.
More
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about Colombia from the MSF 2001 Activity Report
Colombia:
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The Human Face of Conflict, a Photo Essay
drc
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Copyright Roger Job/MSF
<http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/images/publications/reports/2002/top10
_drc2.jpg> A brutal civil war has been waged in the Democratic Republic of
Congo (formerly Zaire) for the past five years. Foreign armies and Congolese
armed groups are locked in power struggles that are siphoning off much of
the country's vast natural wealth in the process. Caught in the middle are
the 53 million Congolese civilians. After decades of government neglect and
war, the country's health system is in a state of complete collapse. An
estimated 2.5 million Congolese are displaced inside the country, many of
them outside the reach of aid workers. Families stripped of their coping
mechanisms are more vulnerable to infectious disease and malnutrition.
Outbreaks of meningitis, cholera, measles, and malaria are common, and the
incidence of sleeping sickness, tuberculosis, and HIV/AIDS is rising
rapidly. Hospitals and medical equipment are scarce, and many rural
communities are totally without health care. A single Congolese doctor
typically serves approximately 25,000 people. One in four children die
before reaching the age of five; less than half of the population has access
to clean drinking water. Average life expectancy is only 45 years. An
epidemiological survey conducted by MSF in 2001 found extremely high
mortality rates in areas throughout the country. In Basankusu, an area near
the frontline under rebel control, nearly 10% of the global population died
over a 12-month period, with the rate climbing to almost 25% for children
under five.
More <http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/publications/ar/i2001/drc.shtml>
about DRC from the MSF 2001 Activity Report
nd
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Copyright MSF
<http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/images/publications/reports/2002/top10
_nd2.jpg> In 2001, an estimated 14 million people died from communicable
diseases like tuberculosis, malaria, kala azar, and sleeping sickness, for
which there are few effective or affordable medicines. More than 90% of
these deaths occurred in the developing world, where many of the drugs
currently used to treat these diseases are old and increasingly ineffective
due to resistance. Other available drugs are highly toxic or difficult to
use in resource-limited settings. For some diseases, no medicines exist.
Over the past 25 years, fewer than 1% of the more than 1,300 drugs approved
for sale were developed to treat tropical diseases. Research and development
of new drugs for these diseases is at a virtual standstill because the
millions who need them live in poor countries and do not constitute a
profitable market for the pharmaceutical industry. TB kills at least 2
million people each year; yet, the last truly innovative treatment was
developed more than 30 years ago. Malaria kills one child every 30 seconds;
yet, the high price of newer, more effective drugs contributes to the
continued use of old, ineffective medicines, even in places where resistance
levels have reached 80 to 90%. The treatment for kala azar was developed 50
years ago and resistance levels have risen to 70% in some regions. Even when
effective treatments do exist, they are often priced beyond the reach of
those who most need them.
What is MSF Doing About Neglected Diseases?
MSF's Access to <http://www.accessmed-msf.org/> Essential Medicines
Campaign Web Site
More
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about the Access Campaign from the MSF 2001 Activity Report
The Drugs for Negleceted Diseases <http://www.neglecteddiseases.org/>
Conference (Spring 2002)
refugees
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Copyright MSF
<http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/images/publications/reports/2002/top10
_refugees2.jpg> The 1951 Refugee Convention was reaffirmed in Geneva on its
fiftieth anniversary this year, but Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans
Frontières (MSF) sees evidence of an alarming disregard for the terms of
this convention and the protection of refugees worldwide. With growing
frequency, those fleeing conflict do not have the opportunity to seek asylum
and find safe refuge. Refugees are being contained within national borders
and trapped within the violence they are trying to escape. From Afghanistan
to Zambia, the rapid growth in the number of internally displaced people is
testament to the increasing reluctance of countries to open borders. As
wealthy countries refuse to share the financial responsibility for
protecting and assisting refugees, poor states that neighbor countries in
conflict are less likely to open their borders and to care for people who
cross them. Many states interpret the Refugee Convention in the most
restrictive manner rather than as a means toward offering genuine protection
to those fleeing persecution. There are currently an estimated 21.8 million
refugees and 20 to 25 million internally displaced persons worldwide.
More about Refugees from the MSF 2001 Activity Report:
Protection
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> For or Protection From? A Call for Just Treatment of Refugees and Asylum
Seekers
Using
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Law of War to Protect the Displaced
somalia
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Copyright MSF
<http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/images/publications/reports/2002/top10
_somalia2.jpg> Since 1991, Somalia has experienced the complete collapse of
its central government, the death or displacement of at least two million
people, and a brutal civil war that has destroyed much of the country's
public infrastructure and productive capacity. Despite the existence of a
transitional national government, the country remains fractured, with
various warlords and warring factions in control of various parts of the
country. Somalia ranks near the bottom of the United Nations' human
development index. The health care system, along with all state services,
has collapsed. Most doctors have fled the country, and, apart from staff
working with nongovernmental agencies, no doctors or nurses have been
trained in Somalia since the outbreak of war. The only available public or
free health care is provided by the few humanitarian organizations still
working in the country; this is wholly inadequate, though, as large parts of
the country remain completely cut-off from humanitarian aid. Diseases such
as tuberculosis, cholera, meningitis, and kala azar are rampant. Recent
indications show that an estimated 750,000 people, mainly in the
southwestern part of the country, are at risk for malnutrition because of an
increasingly alarming food shortage brought on by a third consecutive
lower-than-normal rainy season and ongoing fighting.
More
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about Somalia from the MSF 2001 Activity Report
srilanka
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Copyright MSF
<http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/images/publications/reports/2002/top10
_srilanka2.jpg> Sri Lanka's 20-year-old civil war has taken the lives of
more than 60,000 people and displaced hundreds of thousands. After a lull in
the fighting during 2000, attacks and violence increased again in 2001.
Every month, civilians are killed, injured, or maimed by landmines,
unexploded ordnance, or outbursts of fighting. The psychological impact of
the war is profound. A survey conducted by MSF in camps for displaced
persons in the northern town of Vavuniya revealed that substantial numbers
of people had been directly exposed to the violence of war, either through
witnessing or being injured by an act of war, being displaced by the
fighting, or losing a loved one. The suicide rate in the camps is nearly 3
times higher (103.5 per 10,000) than in the rest of the community. Overall,
Sri Lanka has one of the highest suicide rates in the world. Despite the
highly developed health care system that functions in parts of the country,
most health professionals have fled the North where clinics and hospitals
are in serious disrepair and woefully undersupplied. The breakdown in the
health care infrastructure has exacerbated the spread of disease: in the
most affected areas, malaria has risen twenty-fold since the beginning of
the conflict. One in five children born in the conflict area suffers from
low birth weight. Both the Sri Lankan government and the Tamil opposition
forces have failed to meet the health care needs of the Sri Lankan people
caught in conflict.
More
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about Sri Lanka from the MSF 2001 Activity Report
westafrica
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Copyright MSF
<http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/images/publications/reports/2002/top10
_westafrica2.jpg> West Africa has been experiencing a highly volatile
refugee crisis for more than a decade. An ongoing conflict in Sierra Leone
has pushed an estimated 330,000 refugees into Guinea over the last 10 years
and displaced many others inside Sierra Leone. Civil war in Liberia from
1990 to 1997 forced 235,000 Liberians to flee to Guinea, where more than
100,000 remain today. In early 2001, MSF called attention to the
deteriorating situation of hundreds of thousands of mostly Sierra Leonean
refugees stuck in a volatile area of Guinea near Gueckedou, or "Parrot's
Beak." Without adequate protection or the offer of resettlement to safer
areas, large numbers of the refugees fled the area on their own, many
returning to unstable areas of Sierra Leone. In the spring of 2001, fighting
between government forces and armed groups in northern Liberia's Lofa
County-an area fraught with civil war, population movements, and
cross-border incursions by armed groups from Guinea and Sierra
Leone-prompted the exodus of approximately 150,000 people to the southern
part of the country. Since August 2001, there has been an increase in
violent clashes between armed groups in and around Lofa County, displacing
thousands more to camps in the surrounding counties, including some 8,000 to
Jenne Manna in southwest Liberia. Cut off from adequate assistance and
trapped between armed groups, displaced persons in Liberia and throughout
West Africa are increasingly left with little or no protection or security.
More
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about West Africa from the MSF 2001 Activity Report
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