In Bujumbura, Burundi, MSF runs the “L’Arche de Kigobe” facility, a trauma center providing free care for victims of violent trauma. The center started its activities in June 2015 during the crisis and riots in Burundi. Since then, the decrease in violent cases led to an expansion of admission criteria for accidental injuries, burns and victims of sexual violence. Currently, 90% of the patients are victims of accidents, particularly road accidents.

This structure has a 6-bed intensive care unit and a hospitalization capacity of 62 beds. Services include emergency care, physiotherapy, radiology, surgery, orthopedics, psycho-social care and laboratory. In 2018, MSF team in “L’Arche de Kigobe” performed 22,400 emergency consultations and more than 4,000 surgical operations. About 240 national staff and a dozen expatriates work for this MSF project in Burundi. The expansion of admission criteria for accidental trauma led to an increase in attendance at the facility. In order to deal with the influx of patients, the project decided in June 2019 to decentralize simple trauma cases to two health centers (Buterere II and Ngagara) and two district hospitals (Kamenge and Bwiza Jabe). MSF covers the costs for patients who are treated there, provides supplies, salary and training to the medical staff to guarantee a good level of care.