Sri Lanka: MSF scaling up in camps, extra medical staff on stand-by

Sri Lanka | 20 February 2009

Médecins sans Frontières (MSF) is preparing to work in all 15 displaced persons camps in and around the city of Vavuniya in Sri Lanka. The camps are home to about 30,000 people who have fled violence in the Vanni, in the northern part of the country. MSF is already distributing food and other basic relief goods in 10 camps. In Vavuniya hospital, an MSF surgeon has operated on 144 patients, assisting a team of local surgeons.

Food supplements

In the past week, more than 2,500 people have received food supplements in the camps. MSF distributes rations of a corn-soya blend, sugar and oil and is focussing on children under five, pregnant women and breastfeeding mothers. “People lived under dire conditions while still in the conflict zone, with little food for days on end. Now that they’re in a safer area, we need to give extra food to those people who need it most. These food supplements add an extra 500 calories to their daily diet, which does matter a lot in their situation,” explains MSF head of mission Annemarie Loof.

MSF is helping destitute families in immediate need of basic household and hygiene items. Most people left everything behind in the Vanni, having had to move every couple of days before they could cross the frontline into government-controlled territory.

“It was terrifying. People are killed every day. We had no water, food or medicine,” says the mother of a displaced family in the government zone whose children — a sick daughter, as well as her son suffering from a bullet wound — were both admitted to hospital. “At the time, we did not have much money left. When my daughter fell ill, we realized we had to get out of the bunker to go and get medicine. It was very dangerous. Every day we asked my husband what was going to happen to us. Were we all going to stay and die?”

More medical staff on stand-by

For the moment, the Ministry of Health provides medical care in the camps. To this end, the government has seconded doctors from several health facilities. However, this is a temporary solution only, putting pressure on other health structures. MSF has two doctors and two nurses ready to work in mobile clinics in the camps if more people arrive or in case the Ministry of Health requests further assistance.

144 surgeries in one week

In Vavuniya hospital, the main facility for emergency treatment in the area, 144 people were operated on last week. 107 of these patients needed surgery as a result of injuries sustained during the violence. An MSF surgeon is operating alongside two Sri Lankan counterparts working for the Ministry of Health. MSF is looking into supporting the Ministry of Health with an anesthesiologist and other medical staff. MSF also provided the hospital with 100 mattresses and bed linen, anticipating a new influx of patients.

Less people leaving conflict zone

Whereas the past two weeks saw an increase in civilians who managed to escape the conflict, their number has slowed down considerably in the last couple of days. MSF continues to seek urgent access to the 200,000 people in the Vanni, and urges both parties to the conflict to do their utmost to ensure the safety of civilians who remain trapped in the fighting.

“I am not crying because I am sick, but because my brothers and sisters are still in the conflict zone,” explains a 15-year-old girl who was very seriously wounded in the fighting. Her mother, like many other people who went to the government zone, is still in a transit camp. She is desperately seeking her family and any scrap of information about the children she left behind.