Hunger Strikes Malian Refugees Stranded in Mauritanian Desert

Mauritania 2013 © Nyani Quarmyne Houmou Ag Amamili arrived in the Mbera camp on November 14, 2013. As of March 11 he still had not received a tent in which to live. NOUAKCHOTT, MAURITANIA/NEW YORK, APRIL 12, 2013—Conflict in Mali has driven nearly 70,000 refugees to Mbera camp in the Mauritanian desert, where appalling conditions and inadequate assistance are leading to severe malnutrition and deaths from preventable diseases, the international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) said in a report released today. Conditions in the camp worsened following an influx of 15,000 refugees in the aftermath of the joint military intervention by French and Malian forces in Mali in January. The number of consultations in MSF's clinics in the Mbera camp increased from 1,500 to 2,500 per week. The number of children admitted per week for severe malnutrition more than doubled, from 42 to 106, despite the fact very few children were malnourished when they arrived at the camp. "These statistics show that the refugees have grown weaker while in the camp, the very place where they should have been receiving assistance, including correctly formulated food rations from aid organizations," said Henry Gray, MSF emergency coordinator. The report, Stranded in the Desert, calls for urgent action by aid organizations to meet the refugees' basic needs. In January there was only one latrine for e...
Source: MSF News - Category: Global & Universal Source Type: news