Nigeria

There were at least 23 attacks on health in 2017. In the deadliest attack, the Nigerian air force dropped two bombs on a displaced persons settlement on January 17 in Rann, Borno state, during an MSF vaccination campaign. The attack killed three MSF-contracted water and sanitation workers, six Red Cross volunteers delivering food aid, and at least 90 civilians.[4] [5] [6] Nigerian officials apologized for the accidental airstrike, faulting inadequate marking of the area, although Human Rights Watch had observed that tents were clearly visible from the air and there was an apparent Nigerian military compound barely 100 meters away from the bombing site.[7] [8]

While perpetrators were unknown in most other cases, Boko Haram carried out four attacks on health facilities and one attack in which they looted medications.[9] In an attack on a town in Adamawa state in August, Boko Haram completely destroyed the town hospital, depriving inhabitants of their main health facility and leaving them no other option than to travel long distances to access medical care.[10] In August, two Boko Haram suicide bombers tried to attack Molai General Hospital in Maiduguri. Instead, two dogs attacked the pair and detonated their explosives, killing the suicide bombers and the dogs. In October, two suicide bombers again targeted Molai General Hospital. While trying to enter the hospital through the rear exit gate, they detonated the IEDs strapped to their bodies, killing themselves and damaging the gate. Though not attributed to the group, the second bombing also fits Boko Haram’s pattern of attack.[11][12] On Christmas Day, Boko Haram fighters attacked the same town with firearms, stole two vehicles belonging to the hospital, and burned three civilians to death.[13] The perpetrators of other attacks are not reported.

Attacks affected at least 36 health staff—13 were killed, two were injured or assaulted, 15 were kidnapped, and six health workers experienced sexual violence. In February in Kogi state, unidentified gunmen attacked several members of the Ministry of Health, killing one.[14] In February, gunmen entered the home of a local tradi­tional healer in Moro, Nasarawa state, killing his security guard. They abducted the traditional healer and later killed him.[15] In October, a local criminal gang in Delta state stormed the town of Enekorogha and abducted four British health workers in an optometry aid group. Though three were released in November, the gunmen killed Dr. Ian Squire, an optometrist from the group.[16]

In September, armed men entered a facility in Osun state, sexually assaulted six nurses, and stole property from both staff and patients.[17] In November, unidenti­fied armed perpetrators attacked a team of Government of Nigeria health workers conducting a polio vaccination campaign in Borno state. While the health workers were not injured, the campaign was suspended, leaving some of the local population without access to the vaccine and further threatening efforts to eradicate the disease in the country.[18] In June, Boko Haram militants attacked a police-escorted convoy carrying medical supplies in Borno state, headed for the town of Damboa. While no medical staff were present, the event threatened the safe arrival of medications to Damboa.[19]

Kidnapping was the most frequent threat to medical personnel. Fifteen health workers were abducted in ten separate incidents in 2017, with eight of the victims being doctors. Attacks on health staff and facilities occurred most frequently in Borno state, the center of the Boko Haram conflict. Other attacks occurred most frequently in the south and central states, where nine of the ten reported kidnappings took place. Effiong Mkpa­nam, Cross River state chairman of the Nigerian Medical Association, called for immediate statewide strikes in response to any future doctor abductions, stating that in 2017, five doctors had been kidnapped in the Calabar area alone.[20] [21]“We cannot continue to save the lives of others while ours is not secured,’’ he stated.[22]