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After handing over our medical activities to the Angolan Ministry of Health, MSF left Angola in August 2023.

In 2016, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) renewed its operations in Angola after an absence of nine years, supporting local authorities after an outbreak of yellow fever affected the country.

We consolidated our operations in 2017 and 2018, supporting the health authorities to respond to emergencies - from the water, sanitation and healthcare needs of more than 30,000 people who had fled conflict in neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo to tackling outbreaks of cholera and malaria.

In 2022,  we returned to Angola to improve paediatric care for malnutrition and malaria and prepare for the possible consequences of drought on people’s health.  

In August 2023, we closed our projects in Angola and handed over all medical activities to the Angolan Ministry of Health.

Our activities in 2022 in Angola

Data and information from the International Activity Report 2022.

MSF in Angola in 2022 In 2022, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) returned to Angola to improve paediatric care for malnutrition and malaria and prepare for the possible consequences of drought on health.
Angola IAR map 2022

In 2021, UN agencies sounded the alarm following three consecutive years of severe drought in Angola, and forecast that soaring food prices, combined with poor harvests, could have an impact on child malnutrition, particularly in southern provinces. In preparation, MSF carried out assessments and started medical activities in several areas in 2022. 

We worked in close collaboration with the health authorities, as well as with local communities, to open a project aimed at reducing child deaths and strengthening the existing healthcare system, particularly paediatric services, in the western province of Benguela. Through this project, we improved the early detection of malnutrition in children in the community, increased access to health facilities by organising referrals, and provided much-needed treatment and medical equipment.

As well as supporting San Pedro hospital’s malnutrition intensive care unit and five other outpatient malnutrition care facilities, we conducted health promotion activities in the community, targeting children under five years old for screening, and their parents for health education in the municipalities of Lobito and Catumbela.

In mid-2022, we sent a second assessment team to the southwest province of Huila to prepare for a preventive intervention, as the climate and harvesting conditions had not improved, and food prices and inflation remained high.

In the municipalities of Cuvango and Chipindo, which have a combined population of about 130,000, rapid nutrition assessments carried out by MSF in the last quarter of the year did not show alarming rates of malnutrition. Drought was also not as serious as predicted; land was being cultivated and there was sufficient livestock available in the areas we assessed.

Consequently, while maintaining a malnutrition component to our activities, we focused on increasing access to preventive and curative care for malaria

 

in 2022
 
Helping tackle malnutrition and malaria in Angola
Angola

Tackling malnutrition and malaria in Angola

Project Update 6 Jul 2023
 
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Vaccination campaign in Dundo camps, Angola
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“People in the camp had one goal – to stay alive”

Voices from the Field 6 Nov 2017
 
MSF Yellow Fever Vaccination in DRC
Democratic Republic of Congo

Hunting down mosquitoes to combat yellow fever

Voices from the Field 31 May 2016
 
MSF Yellow Fever Vaccination in DRC
Angola

MSF teams help curb yellow fever

Project Update 31 May 2016
 
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Vaccination

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