Latest news with #MédecinsSansFrontières
The Guardian
3 days ago
- Politics
- The Guardian
The Guardian view on Gaza's engineered famine: stop arming the slaughter – or lose the rule of law
Gaza's cries have been drowned out by Israel's strikes on Iran, and the diplomatic pressure on Benjamin Netanyahu over the suffering has ebbed. Yet as the industrialised world urges de-escalation in the Middle East, the devastation continues. On Tuesday morning, witnesses described Israeli forces firing towards a crowd waiting for trucks loaded with flour, leaving more than 50 dead. These are not stray bullets in wartime chaos, they are the outcome of a system that makes relief deadly. As Médecins Sans Frontières declared this week, what is unfolding in Gaza is 'the calculated evisceration of the very systems that sustain life'. That includes homes, markets, water networks and hospitals – with healthcare continually under attack. Last week, a UN commission found that more than 90% of the Gaza Strip's schools and universities have been damaged or destroyed by Israeli forces using airstrikes, burning, shelling and controlled demolitions. What's happening is not the collateral damage of military necessity, it is a programme of civic annihilation. In such circumstances, words without action are worse than meaningless. Western powers cannot decry war crimes and genocide while supplying the arms that cause them elsewhere. If they believe in international law, countries such as the UK should act to uphold it. The law is not law if no one enforces it. Israel is the occupying power in Gaza and has a clear duty under the fourth Geneva convention to ensure the population's access to food, water and medical care. Instead, it has imposed a blockade and driven out UN humanitarian operations. In their place, it has backed the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a private aid scheme coordinated with its military and guarded by US mercenaries. Citing unproven claims of Hamas infiltration, Israel scrapped 400 UN-backed aid sites for just four GHF-run, militarised hubs. In a few weeks, around 300 Palestinians have reportedly died trying to access these food sites. UN officials are right to say the GHF scheme is 'engineered scarcity' that has made aid distribution 'a death trap'. The US-based Center for Constitutional Rights has also warned that the GHF may be prosecuted for aiding 'war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide'. Yet Donald Trump's state department is mulling a $500m grant. In the UK, ministers say allegations of genocide are for courts to decide upon, while government lawyers in court assert that there is no genocide. This is not just moral evasiveness but tactical contradiction, designed to sustain arms sales and diplomatic cover. This hypocrisy has consequences. By shielding Israel from accountability in Gaza, and now endorsing its illegal strike on Iran, western governments are not merely complicit – they are dismantling the legal order they claim to defend. They are falling in line with Mr Trump's attempts to undermine institutions designed to hold powerful actors accountable, replacing legal norms with political cover. As the former USAID official Jeremy Konyndyk has said, if GHF were a genuine humanitarian project it would have halted a model that produces daily massacres. According to the Carnegie Endowment's Katherine Wilkens, GHF imposes severe limits on food, subjects civilians to invasive biometric vetting and hands out aid at gunpoint under Israeli control – in clear breach of international law. What is collapsing in Gaza is not just infrastructure. It is the principle that even war has rules. When those rules are waived for allies, no one is safe. Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.
Zawya
3 days ago
- Health
- Zawya
Escalating insecurity forces Médecins sans frontières (MSF) to close Ulang hospital in South Sudan
After two violence incidents earlier this year, MSF has been forced to close our hospital in Ulang county, South Sudan, and end our support to 13 community-based health facilities. This has left 150,000 people with less access to healthcare, in an area where MSF's maternal services are a lifeline. All parties to conflict in South Sudan must adhere to international humanitarian law, cease such indiscriminate attacks, and ensure the protection of medical facilities, health workers, and patients. People in remote areas of Upper Nile state in South Sudan are suffering from a lack of access to healthcare, since attacks on medical boats and armed looting in medical facilities since the beginning of the year have forced Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) to close our hospital and end our support to 13 community-based healthcare facilities in Ulang county. The closure of MSF's hospital has left an area of more than 200km from the Ethiopian border to Malakal town without any functional specialised healthcare facility. MSF calls on all parties to adhere to international humanitarian law, cease such indiscriminate attacks, and ensure the protection of medical facilities, health workers, and patients. Since February 2025, South Sudan has experienced its worst spike in violence since the 2018 peace deal. Fighting between government forces and armed youth militias has escalated across multiple states, including Upper Nile, Jonglei, Unity, and Central Equatoria. This has led to mass displacement, widespread civilian casualties, and a total collapse of already fragile public services. Despite these closures, MSF remains dedicated to supporting the healthcare needs of displaced and vulnerable people in Ulang and Nasir counties. We have a mobile emergency team assessing needs who are prepared to provide short-term healthcare services wherever security conditions and access allow. MSF continues to provide healthcare services in our other projects in Upper Nile state, including in Malakal and Renk counties. An escalating trend of violence against healthcare In January 2025, MSF faced an attack by unidentified gunmen near Nasir, shooting at our boats as they returned from delivering medical supplies to Nasir County hospital. This attack forced us to suspend all outreach activities in Nasir and Ulang counties, which included medical referrals by boat along the Sobat River that allowed women to deliver their babies safely. In April 2025, armed individuals forced their way into the hospital in Ulang where they threatened staff and patients and looted the hospital so extensively that MSF no longer had the necessary resources to continue operations safely and effectively. 'They took everything: medical equipment, laptops, patients' beds and mattresses from the wards, and approximately nine months' worth of medical supplies, including two planeloads of surgical kits and drugs delivered just the week before. Whatever they could not carry, they destroyed,' says Zakaria Mwatia, MSF head of mission for South Sudan. Within a month, another MSF hospital was bombed in Old Fangak, a town in the neighbouring Jonglei state, leaving the facility completely non-functional. This is part of a worrying rise in attacks on healthcare facilities in South Sudan. Local communities depended on MSF for prenatal care 'During my third pregnancy, I decided to come to the hospital well in advance before my delivery. I lost my two first children because I did not make it to the hospital on time,' says Nyapual Jok, a young mother from the outskirts of Ulang county. Nyapual had been transported to the hospital by one of MSF's boat ambulances, since she lives in a remote village far away from Ulang hospital. Ulang, a vast flood-prone area, is characterised by spotted remote villages which often suffer severe mobility restrictions during the rainy seasons. MSF ran boat transportation services to ensure access to healthcare to mothers like Nyapual. 'It's very hard to access healthcare here. If we had a hospital closer during my previous deliveries, maybe my children would be alive today,' adds Nyapual. Nyapual shared her story in November 2024, only two months before the attack on the same boats which helped her deliver her baby safely. Facility closures create gaps that are difficult to fill The attacks' effect of stopping medical referrals by boat has had fatal consequences for the people living in remote areas in the region. People in Ulang and Nasir counties had to wait for days, sometimes even weeks, to get a boat to take them to Ulang hospital. In desperate situations, they would walk for days through a muddy landscape – a land that is nearly impossible to cross on foot during rainy season. 'She was in labour when she suffered birth complications – she had to get to a hospital as soon as possible,' says Veronica Nyakuoth, an MSF midwife at the Ulang hospital, about a patient she attended to in the maternity ward. 'Normally, MSF mobile teams would have been able to pick her up by boat, but since that service was cut off, instead she had to wait two days for a private boat to take her. When she finally made it to Ulang hospital, it was too late: the team could not find a heartbeat from the twins she was carrying in her womb.' 150,000 people cut off from care With the closure of the hospital and the withdrawal of support to the decentralised facilities including transportation of patients, more than 150,000 people will now face even more difficulties accessing healthcare in Ulang county and more might face the tragic fate that Veronica's patient had to suffer. Over 800 patients with chronic illnesses such as HIV, tuberculosis, and others have lost access to treatment due to the closure of MSF services in the area. 'We need a hospital nearby that can help mothers and children. Without it, many will suffer and lose their lives,' says Nyapual. MSF in Ulang Since 2018, MSF had been providing vital health services in Ulang including trauma, maternal and paediatric care. The teams also supported 13 facilities to offer essential healthcare services. Over the past seven years, MSF teams carried out more than 139,730 outpatient consultations, admitted 19,350 patients, treated 32,966 cases of malaria, and assisted 2,685 deliveries, among other essential services. During this time, MSF also provided support to Nasir County hospital and responded to multiple emergencies and disease outbreaks. Nyapual's story, along with those of many others, serves as a stark reminder that healthcare is a fundamental right and should never be a target. The consequences of attacks to healthcare are more than the damage to a building; it's the loss of hope, safety, and the chance for a healthier future. Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Médecins sans frontières (MSF).
Malaysiakini
4 days ago
- Politics
- Malaysiakini
EU's hypocrisy fuelling suffering in Gaza
COMMENT | The hypocrisy and inaction of the European Union (EU) and its member states have allowed Israel to freely continue its massacre of Palestinians in Gaza with total impunity. Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) calls for impartial needs-based aid to be facilitated into the Gaza Strip at scale, the protection of civilians, and the immediate restoration of a sustained ceasefire; European governments must act decisively to expedite this. For more than 20 months, Israeli authorities and forces have inflicted a punishing campaign, including large-scale forced displacement and ethnic cleansing against Palestinians in Gaza. On a daily basis, our teams witness patterns consistent with genocide through deliberate actions by Israeli forces, including mass killings, the destruction of vital civilian infrastructure, and blockades choking off access to food, water, medicines, and other essential humanitarian supplies.
Irish Times
4 days ago
- Health
- Irish Times
Amount of aid getting into Gaza ‘minuscule', Doctors Without Borders chief says
The amount of food and humanitarian aid getting to the civilian population in Gaza remains 'minuscule', the head of medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has said. The flow of vital aid into the Palestinian enclave was still being 'throttled, if not blocked outright' by Israel , according to Christopher Lockyear, secretary general of MSF, whose teams of medics are operating in Gaza. His comments were made just before health officials in Gaza confirmed that at least 34 Palestinians were shot dead on Monday in areas near food distribution centres in the south of the Gaza Strip. The toll was the deadliest yet in the near-daily shootings that have taken place as thousands of Palestinians move through Israeli military-controlled areas to reach the food centres run by a private contractor, Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF). READ MORE Two witnesses said Israeli troops opened fire early on Monday in an attempt to control the crowds. There was no immediate comment by the Israeli military . It has said in previous instances that troops fired warning shots at what it calls suspects approaching their positions. Palestinians line up to buy dinner at a food stand near the beachfront at a tent camp for displaced people in Gaza City. Photograph: Jehad Alshrafi/AP Speaking at a press conference in Brussels, Mr Lockyear said Israel had 'weaponised' the distribution of humanitarian supplies in Gaza, which has been devastated by 20 months of war. Israel's controversial new system of distributing aid, using the US-backed GHF, seemed to be a 'cynical ploy to feign compliance with international humanitarian law', he said. 'In practice it uses aid as a tool to forcibly displace people as part of what seems to be a broader strategy to ethnically cleanse the Gaza Strip,' he said. The GHF began distributing food packages after a blockade by Israel that stopped aid getting into Gaza for nearly three months, which drew international condemnation. The new system of aid delivery has been roundly criticised by humanitarian groups. Scores of Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces in near-daily shootings, as people try to reach the food distribution points. [ People Before Profit TD Paul Murphy detained again by Egyptian authorities Opens in new window ] The amount of aid currently getting to the people of Gaza remained 'minuscule', Mr Lockyear said. Supplies of fuel in particular were running low, which he said would make it challenging for hospitals to continue to function. 'Aid is a legal obligation, not a bargaining chip, and withholding it amounts to collective punishment,' he said. MSF, also known as Doctors Without Borders, called on European governments to exert more pressure on Israel, to stop the 'carnage' in Gaza. 'For more than 20 months now, relentless bombardment and siege by Israeli forces have inflicted a punishing campaign against Palestinians in Gaza, turning this narrow strip of ground into a graveyard of shattered hospitals, mass graves and destroyed neighbourhoods,' Mr Lockyear said. MSF teams of medics working in Gaza had described the conditions as worse than hell on Earth, he said. Nearly 55,000 Palestinians have been killed during Israel's invasion of Gaza, according to health authorities in Gaza. The invasion followed the October 7th, 2023 attacks of southern Israel by Hamas militants. Omar Ebeid, an MSF emergency co-ordinator on the ground, who returned from the Gaza Strip 10 days ago, said medical staff were seeing a significant increase in cases of malnutrition. 'The entire population is hungry and they are rationing food,' he said. Virginia Moneti, a doctor who also recently returned from Gaza, said basic supplies, such as stocks of medical dressings, were dwindling. Healthcare organisations were struggling to provide meals to patients in hospitals, she said. Many people were living in tents on top of the rubble of destroyed homes and buildings, with no access to basic services, she said. There was a fear the recent military escalation between Israel and Iran, where both countries were now launching missiles at the other, could pull focus away from the dire conditions in Gaza. 'We're concerned eyes could be taken off what is an ongoing and daily horror in Gaza,' Mr Lockyear said.
Yahoo
10-06-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Canadian doctor after devastating Sudan assignment: 'The worst humanitarian crisis in the world'
Sudan is facing an emergency of staggering proportions, one that has displaced over 12 million people and decimated the nation's healthcare system. But unlike other global crises, this one seems to be happening almost entirely in silence. 'This is not just a war between two parties,' says Sana Bég, executive director of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) Canada. 'It's a war on the people of Sudan.' What began as a power struggle between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in April 2023 has spiralled into what aid workers now describe as the world's largest displacement crisis. According to the World Health Organization, 70 to 80 per cent of the country's healthcare facilities are either nonfunctional or overwhelmed. In parts of Darfur, even the UN is absent, leaving MSF — also known as Doctors Without Borders — as the only international organization delivering aid on the ground. 'Having to choose between one life-saving activity for another are the kinds of decisions our teams are left to make because of this increasingly isolated environment where we're the only ones being relied on to carry out an entire scope of what should be an ecosystem of aid,' Bég says. This is not just a war between two parties. It's a war on the people of Sudan. For Dr. Reza Eshaghian, a Vancouver-based physician who recently returned from Darfur, the devastation is unlike anything he has seen before. 'What's happening in Sudan is the worst humanitarian crisis in the world, full stop,' he says. 'There are bombings, sexual violence, armed robbery. There's a lack of protection and international humanitarian law.' Eshaghian, who began working with MSF in 2014, was stationed in Nyala, a city in South Darfur. He noted that it's not just the violence itself that is killing people: 'So much of the suffering and death is from preventable illness. We saw women dying from eclampsia and postpartum hemorrhage. People are dying of malaria, malnutrition, diarrhea, dehydration, sepsis. These are things we know how to treat, but there's no infrastructure left to do it.' The hospital Eshaghian helped support saw overwhelming gaps in supplies and staffing. Although MSF brings in its own equipment, the logistics are gruelling, and his team saw supply shipments often delayed. There was also never enough. People are dying of malaria, malnutrition, diarrhea, dehydration, sepsis. These are things we know how to treat, but there's no infrastructure left to do it. Despite the danger, MSF has continued to provide help where it can, but the work has come at immense personal cost, especially for local staff. 'Eighty percent of our workforce globally is locally hired,' Bég notes. 'These are people whose homes are war zones. [They] tell us they have a fear of retaliation or repercussions for any actions that could be interpreted as siding with one warring party or the other. Having to live in fear on a regular basis is far different than what some of our teams that have the ability to get on a plane and leave face.' In other words, simply providing medical care can be seen as a political act. But that doesn't make it any more secure. The safety protocols MSF follows — clearly marked medical uniforms, identified facilities — are no longer a guarantee. 'We used to rely on international humanitarian law to protect aid workers and patients,' she says. 'That's not the reality anymore. Not in Sudan. The sad reality now is that we are no longer able to guarantee safety in the countries that we're operating in, so we're taking it day by day.' Among the most at-risk in Sudan, as is often the case in most war zones, are women and children. In one year alone, MSF supported approximately 8,500 births and performed over 1,600 emergency C-sections across Sudan. 'But the numbers don't tell the full story,' Bég says. 'We're talking about women walking 100 kilometres on foot, often pregnant or with sick children, just to reach care.' Eshaghian recalls one such woman who fled violence in Khartoum and arrived in Nyala with her three-year-old daughter — the last surviving member of her family. 'Her child had a fever. We were able to treat her. But the mother had lost her husband and other children along the way. Everything had been taken from them. And there are endless stories like this one." In many cases, the trauma goes even deeper. MSF staff are seeing widespread evidence of sexual violence being used as a weapon of war. 'Women have been raped while fleeing,' Bég says. 'Survivors end up giving birth to babies born out of rape, then they have to deal with the shame and fear of stigma and retaliation.' The scale of the trauma has pushed MSF to adopt community-based care models that, for example, can look like training trusted women in each village to serve as peer counsellors and connectors to formal care. 'We can't be everywhere,' Bég says. 'But we can empower people to help each other.' Both Bég and Eshaghian say that the world's silence on Sudan is not accidental — it's systemic. 'There are no foreign correspondents in Sudan. No international media,' Bég says. 'We are the eyes to the world, and we see that as a responsibility to speak out about what we're seeing and to call for an urgent scaling of aid.' That lack of visibility means less pressure on governments and organizations like the UN to act. 'UNICEF, UNFPA — their response is small and, in the case of Darfur, they're barely present,' Eshaghian says. 'There's clearly a lack of political and diplomatic pressure from governments who have the power to push for the end of this war.' Bég doesn't mince words. She asks, 'Who gets the privilege of our attention? There are certain conflicts that make it to our feeds, to our social media, to the news. There is an inherent inequity and racism in that itself. Where you live shouldn't determine whether you live, and that is what we're seeing in Sudan — willful ignorance.' Where you live shouldn't determine whether you live. Still, there are reasons to keep going — glimpses of joy, even in the bleakest corners. 'When you visit patients in the hospital, especially children who bounce back from illness and are quite resilient, you see their happiness. [We] took a lot of pride in ... being able to support the community, to see the impact,' Eshaghian says. What MSF is now demanding is clear: A significant increase in humanitarian access, stronger diplomatic pressure on Sudan's warring factions, and more support from countries like Canada. 'Our patients have no choice but to wake up with hope every day,' Bég says. 'The least we can do is show up for them and provide care. Hope is not optional, it's our moral imperative. We have to reject apathy.'
