The COVID-19 pandemic poses a huge threat to over 170,000 people in Sahrawi refugee camps in western Algeria, as local authorities and organizations were vastly unprepared for such circumstances caused by the disease due to severely limited financial resources, the Oxfam international relief group said on Friday
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 08th May, 2020) The COVID-19 pandemic poses a huge threat to over 170,000 people in Sahrawi refugee camps in western Algeria, as local authorities and organizations were vastly unprepared for such circumstances caused by the disease due to severely limited financial resources, the Oxfam international relief group said on Friday.
The UK non-profit charitable organization said in a report that nine coronavirus cases have already been confirmed in the western Algerian province of Tindouf, where the Sahrawi refugee camps' bloc is based. The province borders the territory of Western Sahara, over which Morocco and Mauritania have had disputes for decades.
"The new confirmed cases are very close to the camps, which means the risk of an outbreak is now imminent and would be disastrous for the refugee population - one that has already suffered four decades of conflict," Oxfam Country Director in Algeria Haissam Minkara said.
According to the report, the refugee camps are now experiencing a dramatic shortage of medical supplies, lung ventilators and some basic things, such as beds, for COVID-19 patients, and local doctors do not even have enough protective equipment for themselves.
The report said that most of the restrictions caused by COVID-19 have extremely complicated life for people in these camps, stressing that the ability for refugees to buy food or any essential hygiene items is severely limited.
Oxfam has called on the international community to provide $14 million in financial support to help respond to the crisis as soon as possible, saying that the organization is mobilizing all of its resources, but it will not be enough to curb the spread of COVID-19.
Morocco has been involved in a conflict with the Polisario Front movement over control of Western Sahara, a former Spanish colony that was transferred under control of Morocco and Mauritania in 1975. In 1976, Polisario Front declared that it had established the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic. This partially recognized state claims Western Sahara but controls only a small part of it.
