Medecins Sans Frontieres Clinic Razed Down By Armed Men In Burkina Faso
During the attack, MSF reported a member of the MSF team was injured by the armed gang and several patients wounded.
Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF)/Doctors Without Borders, an International NGO has reported that a healthcare centre supported by MSF in Foube, Barsalogho department, in the Centre-North region of Burkina Faso has been burnt down by an unidentified armed gang on Sunday, Nov. 21.
Mamadou Diarra, Head of mission for MSF in Burkina Faso said during the attack, a member of the MSF team was injured by the armed men, “Our colleague, as well as other wounded patients have been quickly treated and evacuated to Ouagadougou, and are now in a stable condition.”
The Head of mission said the armed men were targeting the Foube gendarmerie post which was a few hundred metres away.
“We are shocked by this news and alarmed by this situation in the Centre-North region of Burkina Faso, as in other parts of the country. The health post is now completely destroyed, we can no longer treat patients,” Diarra said.
He raised an alarm that the violence continues to increase daily in Burkina Faso, trapping the Burkinabe people a little more each day, which he said is unacceptable.
He said medical needs are largely unmet and people are trapped in conflict in a humanitarian environment such as Burkina Faso, “It is therefore imperative to protect medical assistance, as well as patients and medical staff, in all circumstances.”
The healthcare centre was built by MSF in 2019 and was managed by the Barsalogho health authorities.
Since January 2021, more than 19,700 consultations have already been carried out on this centre, of which just over a third were with children under the age of 5.
Over recent years, large parts of Burkina Faso have been engulfed in intense and continuous violence between various non-state armed groups and Burkina Faso’s army and allied forces. On occasions, there has been infighting between the non-state armed groups too.
Over the past few months, MSF have seen a gradual increase in violence against civilians across the Est, Sahel and Centre-Nord regions, resulting in a large loss of lives, including the attack on the night of 4 June on the village of Solhan, which left more than 130 people dead and scores injured.
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