* Any views expressed in this article are those of the author and not of Thomson Reuters Foundation.
Following an outburst of intense fighting between national forces and a local rebel group, the Swiss-based aid organisation Medair was among the first international bodies to react to the crisis.
On 23 August, conflict broke out in Irumu between the national forces and a local rebel group. To date, 70,000 people have been forced to flee from their homes. The displaced people are concentrated around four villages—Soke, Kaguma, Gety, and Songolo—each of which saw their population triple or quadruple in a matter of days.
The Medair team triaged the IDP situation in Soke and surrounding villages, disbursing emergency medications to eight health clinics in the area. As one of the first responding NGOs, and with such a long history in the region, Medair was well-positioned to distribute emergency medicines and restock the rapidly depleting stores of basic medical supplies and mosquito nets in the clinics.
Medair targeted the most significant risks facing the IDPs, including acute respiratory infection (ARI), malaria, and diarrhoea. Medair’s efforts also focused on the treatment of sexually transmitted infections (STI) and sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV), as the conflict has seen a rise in sexual assaults.
Clinics were overwhelmed by the rapid increase in patients needing urgent care. Medair identified trained medical personnel among the displaced, including much-needed nurses and midwives, who have since begun assisting at the host clinics.Jacques Mbafele Muganbo, a nurse who was displaced from Singo, is now helping out at the clinic in Nyamabo. “Medair’s intervention, especially the medicines the Medair teams distributed, have allowed the clinics to remain open and serve host and displaced populations alike,” said Nurse Muganbo.
With so many displaced people living in crowded conditions, the risk of a deadly measles outbreak is feared to be very high. In response, Medair joined UNICEF and Doctors Without Borders to launch an emergency measles vaccination campaign with the aim of reaching as many as 80,000 children to prevent this killer disease from spreading through the population like wildfire.
Medair was able to respond to the crisis with such rapidity because it was already supporting a number of the clinics in the area. Concerns remain regarding the ability of non-supported clinics to address the needs of the population. Not only are the health clinics overwhelmed, the bulk of IDPs are currently housed in schools and churches: facilities that are woefully insufficient to meet their basic needs of food, safe drinking water, and latrines.
In addition to providing emergency services, Medair is contributing information to rapid needs assessments of a variety of sectors, sharing results with the UN and other INGOs active in Irumu in order to assist the humanitarian response.
As the fighting and associated displacement continues in Irumu, Medair and its partners are standing by to deliver aid to those areas that are affected by conflicts in eastern D.R. Congo.
Click here for more information about Medair’s work in D.R. Congo.
Medair’s relief programme in D.R. Congo is supported by the United States Agency for International Development, the E.C. Directorate-General for Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection, the Pooled Fund, UNICEF, Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, and by private donations.
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This information was produced with resources gathered by Medair field and headquarters staff. The views expressed herein are those solely of Medair and should not be taken, in any way, to reflect the official opinion of any other organisation.
