MSF Supports Displaced Populations On Chad-Cameroon Border

Medecins Sans Frontieres/Doctors Without Borders (MSF), an international NGO, is responding to 30,000 displaced people suffering from the aftermath of a clash between two communities in Northern Region of Cameroon.

The charity organisation said the displacement came as a result of a clash that broke out between the Mouzgoum and Choa Arab communities on Tuesday, Aug. 10 following a land dispute in the Logone-Birni district located in the far Northern region of Cameroon.

Diouf, Head of the Kousseri Emergency Project, noted that the tension from the clash eased after a month but health workers are still mobilised in the region to respond to the consequences of the clashes that have caused nearly 30,000 people to be displaced.

“Fighting in this region resulted in dozens of people killed and around 100 wounded. At the onset of the clash, the looting and burning of villages initially led people to seek refuge in the district of Kousseri in Cameroon, as well as across the border in Chad,” Diouf said.

“During this period of the year, the rainy season is considered a peak for high transmission of malaria, diarrheal diseases, and a risk of Cholera due to the flooding in the region.”

In collaboration with the Kousseri Health District, MSF has been providing support in terms of human resources and medicare; the referral of injured patients with serious cases to Ndjaména has relieved the patients, families and staff at the hospital in Kousseri.

“This support has made it possible to save the lives of patients who would otherwise have had difficulty receiving adequate care in Kousseri,” Diouf said.

Since the beginning of the clash, MSF has coordinated the deployment of a team of five medical staff including two doctors, two nurses, and a clinical psychologist along with a coordinating team to provide support and care for the injured and displaced people remaining in Cameroon after the clash in the village of Missika, Madiako, and the Logone Birni district.

Since the end of August, MSF’s presence has been reduced, but the organisation remains involved in assessing the needs of the community with all mobilised actors.

So far, MSF has conducted 1,972 consultations in Oundouma and Gamakotoko located along the border of Chad, and 33 people, including wounded, pregnant women and severely malnourished children, were referred to hospital facilities, such as the intensive therapeutic nutritional unit supported by MSF in the capital Ndjamena.

MSF has since passed care to other actors who are mobilizing to continue to provide care to meet the medical needs of displaced people and host populations along the Chadian banks of the Logone River.