A charity providing medical care to victims of conflict in Donetsk has been ordered to immediately stop its activities after its accreditation was withdrawn by the country’s humanitarian committee.
Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said it received written notification from the committee that its accreditation in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic had been withdrawn. It was not provided with a reason for this decision.
The organisation said it had up to now co-ordinated all its activities with the authorities and was willing to continue the collaboration “for the sake of the health of thousands of vulnerable citizens of DPR”.
Director of operations for MSF Dr Bart Janssens said: "We are extremely concerned by this move, which will deprive thousands of people of life-saving medical assistance."
He said the decision would have life-threatening consequences for the patients it was now leaving behind.
“We are urging the DPR Humanitarian Committee to reconsider the decision without delay in order that we can resume providing much-needed healthcare.”
MSF has donated medication and material to 170 medical facilities to treat war-wounded and patients with chronic diseases since the start of the conflict in May of last year.
It has conducted more than 85,000 consultations together with the local healthcare authorities through 40 mobile clinics since March 2015, providing healthcare to people living in places from where doctors and nurses have fled or where pharmacies are empty.
Dr Janssens said it was the main organisation providing treatment for tuberculosis in prisons, insulin for diabetic patients and haemodialysis products to treat kidney failure.
“With the termination of our activities from one day to the next, thousands of patients suffering from chronic potentially fatal diseases will be now left with little or no assistance.”
Some 150 patients in the penitentiary system who live with drug-resistant tuberculosis will now no longer have access to the treatment that MSF has been providing since 2011, the organisation said. It said there was a huge risk that the health of these patients will deteriorate soon.
“Any interruption of treatment of patients with drug resistant TB is known to reduce dramatically the prospects of cure, even if they restart treatment later,” Dr Janssens said.
MSF said it urgently requested the humanitarian committee to reconsider the withdrawal of the organisation’s accreditation in order that it can resume life-saving medical activities.
“As a medical organisation we ethically cannot accept being forced to abandon our patients. The decision must be reviewed so crucial healthcare can be once more provided to those in need.”
Earlier this month, the EU and Russia welcomed a decision by the Moscow-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine to postpone local elections, which they had vowed to conduct in defiance of Kiev's pro-western government.
The move by the rebel rulers of parts of Ukraine’s industrial Donetsk and Luhansk regions came during a sharp de-escalation of a conflict that has claimed more than 8,000 lives and displaced more than one million people since April 2014.