Nigeria: Borno State Health Crisis VIDEO FOOTAGE + PICS available

Today, we provide you with FRESH VIDEO FOOTAGE from Borno State which depicts the dire situation

In a Press Release earlier this week and in June, Doctors Without Borders (MSF) alerted you to the severity and extent of malnutrition among children in displacement camps outside Maiduguri and the health crisis in surrounding towns. These towns and smaller remote villages have been cut off from the outside world and medical care for months, and in some cases more than a year. The crisis is the result of the ongoing conflict as the Nigerian government forces seek to regain control over vast areas which were under the control of Boko Haram, also known as Islamic State West Africa Province.

Today, we provide you with FRESH VIDEO FOOTAGE from Borno State which depicts the dire situation. Our MSF cameraman on the ground will file more footage in the coming days. Broadcasters wishing to use the footage, please inform us. (BELOW you will find a story summary and the SHOTLIST is available on request)

In addition, for online news outlets we have a short web video clip (01m30s) which you are free to use.

Below you have some photos available for your use. Please credit ©Benoit Finck/MSF

MSF Southern Africa has launched a NIGERIA EMERGENCY fundraising appeal in support of expanding our work in Borno State. We are calling on South Africans to donate via:

FOR INTERVIEWS:

  • Dan Sermand, General Director of MSF Southern Africa, is available for interviews
  • MSF spokespeople on the ground in Nigeria, are also available

Best regards;

Borrie la Grange | Head of Communication, MSF Southern Africa

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STORY SUMMARY

For the first time, an MSF medical team managed to reach Dikwa, a town 90km from Maiduguri in Borno State, northeast Nigeria. They carried out a nutrition assessment among children under the age of 5 years.

There are around 70,000 displaced people living in Dikwa, some of whom have been living in Boko Haram controlled areas until very recently. The team recorded a 13% rate of severe malnutrition amongst those screened.

On the morning of 20 July alone, they identified 34 children who required hospitalisation and a further 663 severely malnourished cases. Due to the limited medical and transport capacity, the team was only able to evacuate the most urgent cases, who were immediately admitted to the Gwange Inpatient Therapeutic Feeding Centre (ITFC), on the outskirts of Maiduguri

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To provide life-saving independent, impartial and neutral medical humanitarian aid MSF relies primarily on the support of private individual donations.

To support our work, visit www.msf.org.za/donate

 

Contact us
Borrie la Grange Head of Communications, Doctors Without Borders (MSF) Southern Africa
Borrie la Grange Head of Communications, Doctors Without Borders (MSF) Southern Africa
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