NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Monday, January 21, 2013

The day after it called for military leaders to unblock access to crucial roads in central Mali, the majority ofMédecins Sans Frontières’s staff remained on lockdown, unable to provide medical care and services to those in need.

“Most of our staff have bunkered up in the hospitals and unfortunately few people are coming in. People are afraid to go there,” said Christopher Strokes, general director of the Brussels branch of the humanitarian aid group, in a phone interview with Devex on Friday. “Many people are not leaving their houses.”

MSF is one of only a few international organization operating in Konna, a small commune in central Mali that had been taken over by Islamist militants early in the week but recaptured by the Malian army after a series of French airstrikes.