By Winnie Kamau
A further 36 patients from Pieri were referred for emergency surgery to the MSF hospital in the Bentiu Protection of Civilians (PoC) site and to Juba.
“The numbers of patients were staggering, putting significant pressure on our medical teams. At this moment our hospital in Bentiu where the most serious patients are being referred to was already stretched for bed capacity due to a peak in malaria cases” said Tila Muhammad, MSF Head of Mission in South Sudan.
Adding “However, there are an extremely limited number of facilities within the country that have the capacity to deal with such numbers of injured and critical surgical interventions.”
The rains are also hampering the evacuation of critical cases to secondary health facilities as dirt roads turn to mud and become impassable. Yet even evacuation by air is also difficult with heavy rains making the airstrip unusable, leaving previously referred patients stuck in Bentiu hospital and occupying beds needed for the wounded.
Additionally restrictions from COVID-19 continue to slow down the speed at which MSF can safely give consultations and evacuate patients, as well as send supplies and deploy key staff in these areas aggravating an already volatile situation.
MSF resumes activities in Pibor
According to MSF, they commenced an emergency response in Pibor on 11 August, nearly two months after activities were suspended due to immense restrictions directly and indirectly related to the COVID-19 outbreak and rife violence. MSF relaunched the emergency outpatient primary health care activities in the centre of Pibor town so that it may be easily accessed by both host and internally displaced populations.
“We are relieved to be finally providing primary health care at a time in the year when normally this community suffers from malnutrition in the lean season, and high rates of water borne diseases and malaria at the peak of the rainy season,” said Josh Rosenstein, Emergency Coordinator for MSF in Pibor.
“But equally, MSF is disheartened and disturbed to hear testimonies from our patients and our staff about the impact the violence of the past months has had on people. Although security is returning, the plight of people will be extremely harsh still for weeks to come as many have lost family, their homes, socio-economic insecurity, dignity and basic access to health care” said the disheartened Coordinator.
One young mother shared her experiences while being admitted to the clinic “We have been living a miserable life. This all started in February, and we would have never expected this situation to last for long…I ran into the bush with my sick three months old daughter. She was sick and died in July. Today is the first time that I have had access to a healthcare facility since February.”
According to MSF they have also started mobile clinics, reaching areas around Pibor whereby people might not have access to the healthcare in the town centre. They have done over 1,500 out-patient consultations and provided 292 pregnant women with antenatal care.
“What it comes down to is the vast majority of the populations of the area are in need of some fairly basic needs after a pretty extreme and precarious year for them. Meeting these needs requires a serious effort on the part of humanitarian actors, but also on the part of all community members and civil authorities ensuring unhampered and safe access for emergency assistance to happen,” said Rosenstein.
MSF is calling upon all actors to urgently prioritise delivering the much needed humanitarian assistance to this population and parties to the violence must respect the safe delivery of emergency humanitarian relief by aid workers.
