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News, blog posts, and event announcements. Other websites are welcome to cross-post this material with attribution and a link to the original.

12/19/2013

Suspected armed Islamic militants Wednesday ambushed a convoy carrying doctors near the Somalian capital, killing six people, three of them Syrian doctors in the country giving medical assistance, officials said Wednesday. Capt. Mohamed Hussein, a senior Somalian police commander, said the convoy came under attack in a semi-forested area outside Mogadishu, while on the way to give medical help to patients at a hospital.
12/18/2013

From November 19-21, the Center for Public Health and Human Rights of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health convened 19 experts from the fields of humanitarian practice, human rights, human security, academic research, government, and philanthropy, along with UN representatives and leaders from health professional associations, to address the grave problem of attacks on and interference with health care, particularly in times of armed conflict and internal disturbances.
12/16/2013

Report from the Agency Coordinating Body for Afghan Relief (ACBAR): In the preparation for the upcoming elections of the spring 2014, the government of Afghanistan announced that some health facilities and schools had been designated as registration centers for the population and as polling stations. First and foremost ACBAR members acknowledge that the upcoming election process is a civilian political process, thus non-military, and therefore shouldn’t be targeted under International Humanitarian Law.
12/13/2013

Gunmen have shot dead at least two policemen providing security to a team of polio workers in north-west Pakistan. A polio worker was also killed in a separate attack, local media have reported. The two policemen were travelling from the town of Swabi to Topi by motorbike when they were attacked. The polio worker was shot on the outskirts of Peshawar.
12/12/2013

How to protect health workers in conflict zones from being attacked? This was the question health experts grappled with in a live online discussion on 3 December 2013 in London. The debate took place as part of the conference “Health Care in Danger: From Consultation to Implementation,” organized by the ICRC and British Red Cross at the Royal Society of Medicine to seek practical ways to combat violent attacks on health workers and facilities in war and emergency.
12/10/2013

Several medical associations and non-governmental organisations have launched an initiative to tackle violence against aid workers in conflict zones. Priya Shetty reports. “In Syria, having a medical kit visible on your car seat can be more dangerous than having a Kalashnikov”, says Bruce Eshaya-Chauvin, medical adviser to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). “Health-care workers in conflict zones are literally being hunted down.”
12/09/2013

Government and armed rebel forces in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital of Bangui have continued to engage in conflict since December 5, with civilians caught in the crossfire—nearly 400 have been killed since Thursday. Having operated in CAR since 2007, International Medical Corps’ local teams are monitoring ongoing developments and are responding to the escalating humanitarian crisis by delivering vital health care services.
12/06/2013

Report from the World Health Organization, UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, and UN Children’s Fund We strongly condemn attacks on health and any other civilian facilities in Syria and are deeply concerned by the serious implications for patients, health personnel and provision of critical medical supplies.
12/04/2013

The European Union, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and seven national Red Cross societies are carrying out an outdoor campaign between 1 and 22 December to mobilize public opinion on the need to respect health-care providers and facilities in armed-conflict situations. A series of posters illustrating the idea that it is possible to give the wounded and the sick timely access to health care, even in the midst of violence, is on display in Amsterdam, Berlin, Brussels, London, Madrid, Paris and Warsaw.
12/04/2013

Attacks on healthcare workers and facilities have become a common feature of violent conflict throughout the world. From Syria to Somalia, there is a dangerous lack of respect for the neutrality of these institutions and personnel: hospitals are shelled; ambulances are fired upon; the wounded languish for hours in checkpoint queues.

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