MSF - The African Mirror

Dec

2023

Aid agencies report looting, suspend operations in Sudanese state

TWO international aid organisations say that their facilities have been looted and they have suspended operations in an area of Sudan where the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) recently advanced in its war with the army. The halting of operations by the U.N. World Food Programme (WFP) and Medical charity MSF in El Gezira risks exacerbating a humanitarian crisis caused by more than eight months of war. The WFP said it had been forced to pause distributions of aid in El Gezira state where it said a warehouse containing enough stocks to feed 1.5 million people for a month had…

Jun

2021

By The African Mirror

Three MSF employees killed in Ethiopia’s Tigray

NEWS

THREE employees working for the Spanish branch of Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) were killed by unknown assailants in Ethiopia's Tigray region, the medical charity has announced. MSF-Spain lost contact with a vehicle carrying the team on Thursday afternoon, it said in a statement. "This morning the vehicle was found empty and a few metres away, their lifeless bodies." "We condemn this attack on our colleagues in the strongest possible terms and will be relentless in understanding what happened," the statement said. It identified the victims as emergency coordinator Maria Hernandez, 35, from Madrid, assistant coordinator Yohannes Halefom Reda, 31, from…

Mar

2021

By The African Mirror

‘Waive vaccine patents to benefit the poor’

COVID-19

DENIS BALIBOUSE DOCTORS Without Borders (MSF) staged a protest at the World Trade Organization on Thursday against what it said was the rich world's reluctance to waive patents and allow more production of COVID-19 vaccines for poorer nations. Activists seeking a waiver of intellectual property rules unfurled a huge sign reading "No COVID Monopolies - Wealthy Countries Stop Blocking TRIPS Waiver" in the park next to WTO's headquarters on Lake Geneva. They want the terms of the TRIPS agreement -- the WTO's Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property -- to be overridden to allow generic or other manufactures to make the…