MSF-Spain helps hospitals resume services in northern towns

The humanitarian agency Medicos sin Fronteras (MSF-Spain) has delivered drugs to two hospitals in war-ravaged northwestern Central African Republic (CAR), enabling them to resume emergency services. MSF-Spain's representative in CAR, Annick Lacits, told IRIN on Monday the agency had supplied three to four weeks' worth of drugs to hospitals in Paoua and Bocaranga, around 500 km northwest of the capital. The supplies will enable surgery and maternity units to function. Drugs to treat meningitis were also included, following the report of 30 cases of the disease in Batangafo. Lacits said an MSF-Spain mission had toured the towns of Paoua, Bocaranga, and Bozoum. She said Bozoum, 384 km northwest of Bangui, was "almost empty," with an estimated 200-300 residents remaining out of a population of 20,000. She said local people in the north lived in fear of armed looters and cattle raiders, who deterred many displaced communities from going home. The northern and eastern regions of CAR were cut off from Bangui during the October 2002 crisis, when the current president Francois Bozize attempted to seize power from Ange-Felix Patasse, precipitating prolonged fighting. Bozize ousted Patasse in a coup on 15 March 2003. MSF-Spain said almost all health facilities in war-affected areas of CAR had been looted, some repeatedly. The agency has been supporting 21 health centres since October 2002. It said each centre received between 400-850 patients a week.