Health care in danger: the many faces of a growing problem

14-05-2012 Photo gallery

Attacks on health-care workers and facilities, and other illegal acts that obstruct their work, put the lives and well-being of millions at risk. This collection of photos illustrates the many aspects of this widespread and growing humanitarian challenge.

- This ambulance was hit by a mortar shell.
  © ICRC / J. Mohr / il-d-00089
Download high resolution image

Attacking health-care structures and personnel, and ambulances – as well as deliberately obstructing the efforts of the wounded to find help – are common features of conflicts throughout the world. In Sri Lanka and Somalia, hospitals have been shelled; in Libya and Lebanon, ambulances have been shot at; in Bahrain, medical personnel who treated protesters are on trial; and in Afghanistan, the wounded languish for hours in vehicles held up in checkpoint queues. From Colombia to Gaza, and from the Democratic Republic of the Congo to Nepal, there is a lack of respect for the neutrality of health-care facilities and personnel, and medical vehicles, among both those attacking them and those who misuse them for military gain.
Knock-on effects
A single act of violence that damages a hospital or kills health-care workers has a knock-on effect, depriving many patients of treatment they would otherwise have received from the facility or workers in question. The effect on the wounded and sick of just one violent incident directed against medical personnel or facilities may be felt by hundreds or even thousands of people.
Owing to the effects of chronic and acute threats, compounded by the persistent problem of inadequate medical services, lack of access to health care is probably one of the biggest humanitarian issues today in terms of the numbers of people affected.
What the ICRC is doing
Over the next four years, the ICRC will mobilize support from Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, the health-care community, governments, military forces and armed groups around the world. By creating a strong community of concern, it seeks to safeguard the delivery of effective and impartial health care in armed conflict and other situations of violence.
- Iraq. A doctor surveys the rubble left in the Adnan Khairallah Hospital in Baghdad after it was hit by a missile.
  © AFP PHOTO / Karim Sahib
- Mizdah, Libya. Mizdah hospital was hit with shrapnel wounding several patients who were in their beds.
  © Christopher Morris/VII
- Fallujah, Iraq, 13 September 2004. This ambulance was destroyed in an attack, killing the driver, two nurses and the five wounded people it was transporting to hospital.
  © AFP PHOTO / Fares Dlimi
- Somalia. After being attacked, Mohammed Yusuf, director of the Medina Hospital in Mogadishu, is now guarded 24 hours a day.
  © ICRC / André Liohn
Download high resolution image
- Pakistan, 12 April 2010. An ambulance is set ablaze by angry protesters in Abbottabad, located in the North West Frontier Province.
  © Reuters / Abrar Tanoli / RTR2CQ0D
- A volunteer doctor on the front line in the oil town of Brega during the first days of fighting in Libya.
  © ICRC / André Liohn
- Iraq, January 2011. Security personnel inspect the site of a bomb attack in Baquba, northeast of Baghdad. A suicide bomber used an ambulance to kill 15 people and wound more than 50 others.
  © Reuters/Stringer / RTXWSKQ
- Libya. The battered main clinic in Misrata had to be evacuated when it was taken over to be used as a military base.
  © ICRC / André Liohn
Download high resolution image
- Mogadishu, Somalia. The emergency room entrance of the ICRC-supported Keysaney hospital. Paintings on the wall depict an array of weapons that are prohibited from entering the hospital (all weapons are prohibited).
  © ICRC / B. Schaeffer / so-e-00218
Download high resolution image
- Tskhinvali, Georgia, 20 August 2008. Patients had to be moved to the basement of this hospital after the building was partly destroyed.
  © AFP PHOTO / Dimitry Kostyukov
- Yemen, 2011. Ambulances take huge risks during armed conflicts to reach and transport the wounded and can fall victim to stray bullets. Catalina Martin-Chico, winner of the first ICRC Humanitarian Visa d’or photojournalism award. (23rd “Visa pour l’Image” International Photojournalism Festival – September 2011 – Perpignan, France).
  © COSMOS / Catalina Martin-Chico
Download high resolution image
- Yemen, 2011. The wounded and dead arrive by ambulance, motorcycle or car to a mosque that serves as a medical clinic. Catalina Martin-Chico, winner of the first ICRC Humanitarian Visa d’or photojournalism award. (23rd “Visa pour l’Image” International Photojournalism Festival – September 2011 – Perpignan, France).
  © COSMOS / Catalina Martin-Chico
Download high resolution image
- 7 May 2002. Israeli soldiers inspect a Palestinian ambulance on its way to Jerusalem at the West Bank army checkpoint of Kalandia.
  © AFP PHOTO / Leila Gorchev
- April 2003. The emergency room of Saddam city hospital in Baghdad.
  © ICRC / B. Schaeffer / iq-e-00414
Download high resolution image
- A Palestinian Red Crescent Society ambulance is blocked at a checkpoint in Hebron.
  © ICRC/n.s. / il-e-01750
Download high resolution image
- Suburbs of Sa'ada, Yemen. A tent set up as part of a primary health-care project organized by the Yemen Red Crescent Society in cooperation with the ICRC.
  © ICRC / P. Duda
Download high resolution image
- Puttumatalan, Sri Lanka, March 2009. ICRC team evacuating wounded civilians by ferry to Trincomalee.
  © ICRC / Z. Burduli / lk-e-00429
Download high resolution image
- Arauca department, Colombia. An ICRC motorboat heads up the river Guaviare, towards the village of Mocuare, in order to provide primary health care to the inhabitants of this remote village, long-affected by the armed conflict Colombia.
  © SEMANA/SIERRA / Juan Carlos

Health care in danger: the many faces of a growing problem

14-05-2012 Photo gallery

Related sections