In the capital Kinshasa, MSF teams have been treating COVID-19 patients in the St Joseph Hospital, one of the six hospitals identified by the Ministry of Health for COVID-19 patient care. From early May to early June, an average of 30 patients per day were being treated at the centre, with 20 per cent requiring oxygen therapy. We have trained medical staff on COVID-19 detection and prevention, and MSF’s team has developed a 50-bed isolation ward. At the Kabinda Hospital Centre in Kinshasa, where MSF supports HIV/AIDS patients, we have set up an isolation unit with 20 beds. MSF mobile teams are also supporting 50 health structures in four health zones in Kinshasa to strengthen hygiene measures, train and equip staff with personal protective equipment, and carry out health promotion activities within the community.
In South Kivu, MSF is establishing isolation centres in Baraka hospital, Kimbi hospital and Nyange Heath Centre for suspected COVID-19 patients. These centres will be able to care for 80 patients as well as provide mental health support. We are supporting the Ministry of Health with laboratory work and sample analysis.
In Goma, MSF is preparing to support the Ministry of Health in managing a COVID-19 treatment centre. The centre will be housed in a facility previously used to treat Ebola patients.
MSF has started production of reusable masks in Goma and Kinshasa. These masks are non-surgical masks and will be distributed to patients, their carers, and non-medical staff in the healthcare facilities that MSF supports.
In Bukavu, we are assisting with the dignified and secure burial of patients who have died from COVID-19.
Our staff are supporting the Ministry of Health with training of healthcare workers in infection prevention and control measures as well as pre-triage, triage, screening and isolation for people with symptoms consistent with COVID-19, in all structures where we work. In some of the country’s hospitals and healthcare centres where MSF is already present, we are building isolation circuits within the structures and setting up additional beds for the isolation and care of potential COVID-19 patients.
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The second largest country in Africa (after Algeria), DRC is rich in natural resources but plagued by conflict.
Until recently, the country has been at the centre of what some observers have called “Africa’s world war”: the five-year conflict saw government forces, supported by Angola, Namibia and Zimbabwe, clash with rebels backed by Uganda and Rwanda.
Despite a peace deal and the formation of a transitional government in 2003, people in the east of the country remain in fear of death, rape or displacement by marauding militias and the army.
Response to Epidemics
Sexual and Reproductive Health
Emergency and Mobile healthcare
Speaking out Case Study
Rwandan Refugee Camps in Zaire and Tanzania 1994-1995
Following the 1994 Rwandan Genocide, nearly 2 million ethnic Hutus fled across the border into eastern DRC, as well as Tanzania and Burundi, where they settled in large refugee camps. Humanitarian access to the camps was severely limited, or outright denied; and refugees were subjected to targeted armed attacks by Rwandan and Burundian armies, as well as the AFDL (Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Congo) forces.
MSF tried to provide aid to both refugees and local populations caught in the fighting. These teams came face to face with the AFDL’s and the Rwandan army’s bloody methods, which included using humanitarian organisations as a lure to draw refugees out of hiding.
In the years since the atrocity, MSF released a detailed case study, highlighting the dilemmas that emerge from humanitarian involvement in conflict situations. The report outlines the decision for MSF staff to speak out.
