**Fatshimetrie: Doctors Without Borders at the bedside of victims of the war in Ituri**
Every month, around one hundred and fifty sick people, victims of war abuses, find refuge with Médecins Sans Frontières at Salama Hospital, in the town of Bunia, in Ituri. Since 2023, this NGO has implemented a free surgical care program aimed at relieving the suffering of residents of this conflict-torn region. Mainly made up of patients suffering from fractures or gunshot wounds, this program is primarily aimed at residents of the most insecure areas of the territories of Djugu, Irumu and Mambasa.
MSF’s initiative responds to a crying need: that of insufficient reception capacity and the inaccessibility of health structures in these regions plagued by instability and violence. Since the start of the project in 2023, more than a thousand patients have already benefited from this free care, offered as part of the Salama Hospital surgery program supported by Médecins Sans Frontières.
Among the beneficiaries are mainly women and children, victims of clashes involving local and foreign armed groups. Physical trauma is often accompanied by psychological after-effects, direct consequences of the horrors perpetrated by these armed groups: beheadings, mutilations, loss of family members.
Dieudonné Chinyabuguma, head of the mental health service, emphasizes that more than 470 patients have physical injuries and after-effects of psychological trauma. Comprehensive and integrated care is therefore essential to help these patients overcome their physical and psychological pain, in order to promote their recovery.
Since the launch of this project, more than 1,900 surgical interventions have been carried out free of charge by Médecins Sans Frontières, in collaboration with 13 health zones out of the 36 in the Ituri region. This concrete and humanitarian action contributes to relieving the distress of the most vulnerable populations, victims of the armed conflicts ravaging the region.
By offering free, specialized medical care, Médecins Sans Frontières once again demonstrates its unwavering commitment to populations in distress, while highlighting the need for urgent and continued humanitarian action in the face of the ravages of the war in Ituri.