Field News: Stories From the Front Line

Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) began providing vaccinations this week for at least 18,000 children under the age of 15, mostly living the Batangafo camp for internally displaced persons (IDPs) in northern Central African Republic (CAR). The camp has become the largest in the country, with a population of around 35,000 people.  Besides vaccinations agains measles and polio, the children will receive vitamins and treatment against parasites.

Since the end of November, Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) teams in the Yida refugee camp, in South Sudan’s Unity State, have been responding to a spike in measles cases that is primarily affecting the young. Many of the sick children recently arrived in Yida after fleeing with their families from Sudan’s Nuba Mountain region, where bombardments and fighting between rebels and the Sudanese government forces have intensified of late.

As fighting in eastern Ukraine continues to escalate, Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) is urging all parties to the conflict to halt shelling of hospitals and ensure civilians can reach safe places. In response to the surge in violence over the last two weeks, the organization is urgently expanding its support to hospitals on both sides of the front line as doctors try to deal with influxes of wounded patients and continued heavy fighting traps civilians in frontline towns.

Three weeks later after Malawi was devastated by the largest floods in living memory, people are still struggling to get on with their lives. Some must also continue to plan for events that even floods can’t disrupt — like the arrival of a new baby. The following piece tells the story of Berita, an expectant mother who had to overcome unanticipated adversity to deliver her new baby.