MSF denounces "appalling" mortality in oil region

Warring parties in southern Sudan's oil-rich western Upper Nile region are responsible for "appalling" civilian mortality from infectious diseases and violence, the international medical organisation Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) said in a new report released on Monday. "Thousands of people have died from diseases that can be treated, even during conflict. It is the way the war is waged that limits access to medical services," Arjan Hehenkamp, Operational Director of MSF, said in a statement launching the report, "Violence, Health, and Access to Aid in Unity State/western Upper Nile, Sudan". MSF highlighted the problems faced in dealing with the parasitic disease kala azar (visceral leishmaniasis), which is estimated to have killed some 100,000 people in western Upper Nile (Wahdah/Unity State) - at least one third of the population in the area - during an epidemic in the late 1980s. Kala azar is a parasitic disease spread by the bite of the sandfly, which affects the immune system and is fatal in 95 percent of cases if left untreated. A series of 30 daily injections cures the disease in 90 percent of cases and confers immunity for the rest of the patient's life, the report said. MSF currently offers kala azar treatment in three centres in western Upper Nile, including the government-held town of Bentiu, and the nearby village of Nimne. In February, MSF was forced to evacuate and suspend its programme in Nimne, due to a ground attack and aerial bombardment. "In the first 10 days of February, Nimne was first looted by ground troops and then bombed by Antonov aircraft," MSF said. "The kala azar patients and the rest of the population fled the attacks. Thus far they have not returned." Since setting up the Nimne centre in December 2000, MSF had treated 1,206 kala azar patients. At the time of the attacks, 107 people were undergoing treatment for the disease in Nimne, MSF said. An MSF health clinic at the village of Bieh, also western Upper Nile, had also suffered disruption after a government helicopter gunship attacked during a relief food distribution in February, killing at least 24 people. "The needs are massive, but there is virtually no humanitarian presence in the area, and attacks on health workers and facilities deprive patients of any care," Hehenkamp said. MSF added that these two incidents were just the most publicised attacks to have occurred in recent months, and that they represented "only a fraction" of the consequences of the conflict for the civilians of western Upper Nile. UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Sudan Gerhart Baum, international human rights groups and aid agencies have all voiced concern that the struggle to control oil-rich areas in southern Sudan is exacerbating the civil war. The International Crisis Group reported earlier this month that the recent escalation in fighting around Sudan's oilfields and increasing use of government helicopter gunships against military and civilian targets - as well as indecision surrounding the nature of international involvement in the peace process - were putting at risk "Sudan's best chance for peace" since 1983. As a result of both government and rebel attacks, many health workers had fled the region, while others had found work in government-held areas such as Bentiu, or in Khartoum. "However, for the civilians remaining in western Upper Nile this is scant comfort, as most communities are bereft of trained health staff and access to essential medicines," the report said. MSF urged the government of Sudan, the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army, and associated militia groups to provide protection to medical personnel and medical facilities "in accordance with humanitarian law". "Health services are essential for the survival of the civilian population, and must be protected," MSF said.