Safeguarding Healthcare Monthly News Brief - Attacks on healthcare, December 2018
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Threats and violence affecting emergency care
Africa
Somalia
22 December 2018: In Mogadishu, al Shabaab militants detonated a VBIED near the presidential palace while police and medics were responding to an earlier, politically-motivated suicide blast. No further details specified. Source: IOL
Middle-East and North Africa
Occupied Palestinian Territories
10 December 2018: In Beit Lahia city, Gaza strip, a Palestinian paramedic and at least thirty-two others were injured after demonstrators, who assembled for the 19th maritime march of the Great Return Marches, were shot at with live gunfire by Israeli soldiers. Source: ACLED
14 December 2018: Along the border of the Gaza strip, seven paramedics were injured after being shot with live gunfire by Israeli soldiers during the 38th week of a demonstration against the Israeli blockade. Source: ACLED
Syrian Arab Republic
04 December 2018: In Jendeires city, Afrin district, Aleppo governorate, a member of the Jandaris Syrian Civil Defence (SCD) died from injuries he received two days earlier when an IED attached to a motorbike exploded. The perpetrator was not identified, and no further details are available. Source: AWSD2 and SNHR
Yemen
21 December 2018: In Sadah city, an ambulance traveling through the al Zahra area was struck by a Saudi-led coalition airstrike, killing both the driver and an on-board doctor. Source: ACLED1
Threats and violence affecting general healthcare
Africa
Central African Republic
03 December 2018: Update: Two aid workers kidnapped while collecting data for a vaccination drive in late November were
released after the intervention of UN peacekeepers. The kidnappers claimed the aid workers were spying on them but agreed to let them go. Source: UN-OCHA
Democratic Republic of Congo
04 December 2018: In Beni city, North Kivu province, unidentified individuals burned down two Ebola screening sites and a community relay centre, contributing to the mass displacement of people towards neighbouring Ituri province and thereby further spreading the risk of Ebola across the country. Source: UN-OCHA
10 December 2018: In Kazaro village, Ituri province, a group of young people attacked an Ebola vaccination team, resulting in no injuries. The motivation for the attack is unspecified but likely due to general suspicion of vaccination programs. Source: UN-OCHA
20 - 29 December 2018: In Beni and Butembo cities, North Kivu province, the IRC suspended all of its activities, including its Ebola response program, due to a surge in violence towards aid workers (amongst other groups) following the 20 December delay of the general election in DRC. The election had been due to take place in December 2016 but was met with repeated delays year-by-year, resulting in an outbreak of riots on the 20 December which left multiple IRC facilities damaged, destroyed, looted and burned. In Beni, the burning down of one Ebola triage centre resulted in at least twenty-one patients being declared missing (accounts vary). Sources: IRC, Reuters, Media Congo and NY Times
28 December 2018: In Mulekera commune, Beni city, North Kivu province, in the midst of protests over the electoral commission, protesters looted mattresses and medical equipment from three Ebola assessment centres and set two facilities on fire. Source: Media Congo
28 December 2018: In Beni and Butembo cities, North Kivu province, protests over the electoral commission forced Oxfam to suspend its Ebola response activities in the region. Sources: Media Congo and Oxfam
Nigeria
06 December 2018: In Rann town, Borno state, a clash between armed assailants and soldiers led to the deaths of an unknown number of IDPs and the destruction of a medical centre. The violence subsequently forced an unspecified number of aid workers to relocate to Maiduguri city, the state capital. Source: UN-OCHA
08 December 2018: In Rann town, Borno state, Boko Haram militants torched a malnourishment treatment centre operated by an unspecified NGO. The attack was one component of a wider insurgent attack in the area. Source: The Street Journal
Sudan
30 December 2018: In Khartoum city, protesters demanding that President Bashir step down were targeted by Sudanese security forces, leading to a doctor receiving a bullet wound in his thigh and two other demonstrators being killed. The protests have been led, in part, by doctors and medics. Sources: Channel 4 and The National