Health Workers

Syria: New Barrel Bombs Hit Aleppo - Attacks Defy UN, Hit Medical Facilities

Tuesday, April 29, 2014
The Syrian government is indiscriminately striking civilians and civilian objects in Aleppo with unguided, high-explosive barrel bombs. The attacks continue despite a United Nations Security Council Resolution unanimously passed on February 22, 2014, demanding that all parties in Syria cease the indiscriminate use of barrel bombs and other weapons in populated areas. The UN will meet to discuss its second round of reporting on compliance with the resolution on April 30.

Stop Killing Aid Workers

Friday, April 25, 2014
One aid worker and two civilians killed in Afghanistan. Our thoughts and condolences go to their family, their colleagues and friends as well as to all health workers. Once again, ACBAR wants to reiterate its strong condemnation of any attack, intimidation, violence or threats against aid workers in Afghanistan.

UN Condemns Murder of Foreign Health Workers in Kabul

Saturday, April 26, 2014
The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) condemns the killing of three civilians by a gunman at a private hospital in Kabul. UNAMA following a statement said, all three slain were foreigners who selflessly helped people of Afghanistan in need of medical assistance. The gunman is reported to be a security officer and the motive behind the attack is unknown and no organization has claimed responsibility.

Rebel Attack in Central African Republic Kills at Least 22

Sunday, April 27, 2014
At least 22 people, including 15 local chiefs and three members of staff of the medical charity Doctors Without Borders, were killed in an attack on Nanga Boguila, a town about 280 miles north of the capital Bangui, officials said on Sunday. Some 2,000 French and over 5,000 African peacekeepers are struggling to halt waves of violence that have gripped the country over the last 18 months. Gilles Xavier Nguembassa, a former member of parliament for the area, said four people were killed as the assailants approached the town but most died when Seleka rebels went to an Doctors Without Borders-run health clinic in search of money.

Health Workers Murdered as Pakistan Vaccinates

Tuesday, April 22, 2014
Despite an army of police, vaccination workers in Pakistan are still being murdered in the midst of a public health initiative aimed at vaccinating 8.4 million children in one province against polio and several other diseases in just three months. The Health for All vaccination program, which runs Feb. 2 through April, is targets indigenous wild poliovirus, which is still endemic in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria. Of the three countries, only Pakistan is seeing an increase in cases. In January 2014, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared Peshawar, the capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, “the world's largest reservoir of endemic poliovirus.”

South Africa: Experts Recommend Ways of Making Health Facilities More Secure

Thursday, April 10, 2014
Pretoria/Geneva (ICRC) – Community acceptance, provision of impartial treatment and psychosocial support for medical staff working under stress can all play key roles in making health-care facilities more secure amid armed conflict or other emergencies. These are some of the recommendations that emerged from a workshop that took place in Pretoria, South Africa, this week as part of the “Health Care in Danger” project on the dangers facing health-care services.

World Health Day: Attacks on Patients and Health Personnel Continue

Friday, April 4, 2014
Geneva (ICRC) – On the occasion of World Health Day, 7 April, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is issuing a report on "Violent incidents affecting the delivery of health care," based on a large number of recorded cases, to raise awareness of attacks on people seeking or providing health care.

Protecting Health in Conflict

Friday, April 11, 2014
In 2009, while a fellow at the Center for Khmer Studies in Cambodia, I interviewed a pediatric nurse based at the Angkor Hospital for Children in Siem Reap. Our conversation was short, but what I remember most about the encounter was my colleague’s answer to my question about why she had come to Cambodia in the first place. “Yes, I’m from Sri Lanka. But I’m in Cambodia now because I know what it’s like to live in conflict. Good health is important, especially for women and children. So I’m here because I understand the context and have the skills to help.”

Health Workers and Health Facilities Must Be Protected in Afghanistan

Wednesday, April 9, 2014
I would like to reflect that Afghanistan is facing an armed conflict, and that the security situation has been gradually degrading over the past few years. In 2013 NGOs were impacted by 228 violent incidents, the highest number since 2011 and the worst year on record. During the four first months of 2014, 43 security incidents impacted NGOs in Afghanistan.

The Shots Heard Around the World

Friday, April 4, 2014
New shots are jeopardizing humanity’s battle to eradicate polio, and they don't include syringes or vaccines. Rather, they’re the gunshots of Islamic terrorists. The fight to eliminate polio is now imperiled, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), by “insecurity, targeted attacks on health workers and/or a ban by local authorities on polio immunization,” and violence in the Middle East. In a March 2014 report, the organization warned that the virus, which existed in only three countries at the dawn of 2012, is now returning to places from which it had been eradicated, and “risk of further international spread remains high, particularly in central Africa (especially from Cameroon), the Middle East, and the Horn of Africa.”

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