In central Mali, Dr. Daniel Coulibaly attends to a young child under a rocky outcropping. The natural shelter in the village of Every provides relative privacy, so community leaders suggested the site for medical consultations and vaccinations. Dr. Daniel is part of an International Medical Corps mobile medical unit (MMU) providing healthcare in Mali’s Douentza region, where the government has enforced a tight blockade for more than a year in response to ongoing violence among armed groups. The situation is so dangerous that many humanitarian organizations have stopped operations altogether. Without a stable health system, our MMU is the only available health service for thousands of people.
When they flee their homes to escape the violence, the people of the Douentza region—like many internally displaced persons (IDPs)—are under intense pressure and able to bring only minimal possessions, which reduces their capacity to earn a living. With limited financial means and diminished mobility, these IDPs depend on whatever basic social services are available within walking distance. Because many settle at IDP sites in remote areas, far from any functional health structure, “Taking care of these populations is challenging, because the villages where they live are extremely insecure and inaccessible,” Dr. Daniel says.
He explains that non-displaced populations living in Douentza’s insecure areas also struggle with access to medical services, which armed skirmishes often disrupt, making safe travel to health facilities impossible. “Alleviating suffering and seeing the joy on patients’ faces when we visit their communities—it really motivates our team,” he says.
To meet the health challenges of the people in Douentza, our MMU provides integrated services that include mental health, reproductive healthcare and nutritional health. Even though the only space to treat people might be under the protection of a cliffside alcove, our teams have conducted curative consultations for more than 3,200 people, and antenatal consultations for more than 500. And between November 2023 and June 2024, we vaccinated nearly 1,100 children in the Douentza region against measles.
“We are grateful for the opportunity to serve to the communities of Douentza,” says Souley Abdou, International Medical Corps’ Program Director in Mali. “It is heartening for our teams to see community members’ enthusiasm and joy when we arrive to provide medical care.”
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