Tanzania

Currently, Tanzania hosts around 246,494 refugees and asylum seekers, mainly from neighboring Burundi. Since February 2021, MSF’s support has focused on specialized and secondary health care with the aim of improving the quality of care for refugees and Tanzanian host communities.

Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has also responded to several emergencies in the country including floods.

In 2021, MSF provided health care to some 77,000 refugees in Nduta camp and the surrounding host community. Our services included care and counselling for victims of sexual and gender-based violence, mental health consultations, and treatment for tuberculosis, HIV, and non-communicable diseases. We also ran pediatric and adult wards at the hospital in the camp and assisted deliveries. For patients requiring emergency surgical and obstetric care, we facilitated referrals to the nearby government hospital. In addition, we supported emergency preparedness and response activities, for example, opening a COVID-19 isolation unit in the hospital in Nduta camp, where we took care of 41 patients.

During the year, we handed over three health posts and an outpatient therapeutic feeding center to the Tanzanian Red Cross Society, enabling us to increase our focus on specialist care.

On 6 December, Mtendeli, one of the three refugee camps in Kigoma region, was officially closed, and the 20,000 people living there were transferred to Nduta. Mtendeli camp was established in 2016 after tens of thousands of people fled into Tanzania from neighboring Burundi to escape conflict. The voluntary repatriation of Burundian refugees continues, with 139,305 repatriations completed between January and November 2021.