Brussels/Man- Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) is sending 45 tons of specialised food, logistical equipment and medical material to western Ivory Coast, in response to the emerging life-threatening malnutrition. A full charter will leave tomorrow morning at 4 am from Ostend Airport (Belgium).

The supplies go to the Regional Hospital in Man where MSF has just opened a therapeutic feeding centre. After only one week the centre has already admitted more than 60 severely malnourished children and every day sees more admissions.

These past months, the western part of Ivory Coast has seen high levels of violence with shelling, attacks against civilians and population displacement. Many civilians have fled into the bush and stayed there for weeks, with virtually no access to food and health care.

MSF teams are seeing an increasing number of severely malnourished children in the hospital of Man and have opened a therapeutic feeding centre (TFC) to save those most at risk. For the running of this programme, MSF has 24 Ivorian and three international staff on the ground. The specialised nutrition for the TFC consists of therapeutic milk and BP5 (high calorie biscuits with increased nutritional value).

The full charter includes medical material, surgical kits, logistical equipment and water and sanitation material to be used in the Regional Hospital, that has been re-opened by MSF in January 2003. Since then medical teams have been providing about 5,000 consultations a month and ensuring paediatric, surgical and maternity services.