MSF
A baby with a bullet wound and pregnant women in shock were some of the patients that were treated by Doctors Without Borders in northern Mozambique, following last week's deadly insurgent attack on the town of Palma.
The MSF medical team arrived in the Efungi peninsula, about 25 km's from Palma, on Monday to offer assistance following the attack which left at least one South African and dozens of others dead.
Jonathan Whittall, MSF Director in the Analysis Unit about Mozambique, said since the violent attacks began last Wednesday, hundreds of people have gone to the Efungi area, looking for safety after they had fled into the bush and had been hiding for days.
"Our team is being told one thing repeatedly by all of those that they're seeing in the area. People want to leave, they are terrified," he said.
"Most of the patients that the MSF team have seen are in shock, dehydrated and they're hungry. Our medical teams have seen people with both minor injuries but also patients in critical condition with serious life-threatening injuries," he added.
"For example, the day our team arrive in Efungi, they cared for a bay with a bullet wound. Pregnant women were also coming in terrible condition seeking safety. Mothers were arriving with their new-born babies, who in some case, they've not been able to feed because they were in shock and dehydrated."
"I was in Palma with an MSF team assessing the needs in the town just weeks before the attack and already then we saw a situation of high humanitarian needs. The town was already hosting displaced people that had fled other areas and had sought safety in the town. They went to Palma looking for safety and they were forced to flee into the bush in fear," Whittal said.
In a voice note to Algoa FM News, Whittal said their teams suspect that there are many people still hiding out in the bushes after fleeing the violence.
"We are concerned that the most vulnerable and the people that need us the most might not be able to reach us where we are," he said.
Whittal said MSF teams are ready to support the medical and humanitarian needs of people fleeing from Palma to other districts. He said they were trying to predict where people were heading to so that they were able to meet their most urgent needs.
