Civil Society Organisation Alliance condemns attack on Radda health centre

The CSO Alliance, a national coalition of more than 300 non-government and civil society organisations, strongly condemns the looting and demolition of the Radda MCH-FP Centre in Mirpur-1, Dhaka, on the night of 24 September, reports a press release.

A group of 200 to 250 men held the clinic’s security guards hostage, looted vaccines, medicines, equipment and cash, and razed the centre’s buildings with heavy machinery. The CSO Alliance stands with Radda’s staff and all the families who depend on the centre and demands a prompt, impartial and effective investigation, accountability for those responsible, and compensation for Radda’s losses.

Radda, a Mirpur-based NGO health centre set up in 1974 by Radda Barnen (Save the Children Sweden), has for about five decades provided vaccination, maternal care and family planning to poor mothers and children, in partnership with the Government. Its Mirpur-1 clinic was attacked just before the second phase of the national measles-rubella campaign was due to start. It is continuing to vaccinate children in makeshift tarpaulin tents, but has had to stop most other services.

The people of Bangladesh expected the newly elected Government to provide greater protection from mob violence and lawlessness, and to ensure effective justice. Unfortunately, these problems continue, and this attack is one more example of that ongoing concern. Land disputes must be resolved through legal processes, not by force in the middle of the night.

Partnership between the Government, businesses and NGOs in economic activity and service delivery depends on the maintenance of law and order. NGOs have long worked alongside the state in health.

The CSO Alliance’s study on 50 years of civil society in Bangladesh shows how this partnership helped expand child immunisation, which stood at just two per cent in 1985. Today, 81.6 per cent of children are fully immunised, according to the latest EPI Coverage Evaluation Survey (2023). Everyone needs legal protection from extortion, vandalism and forcible occupation.

The CSO welcome the nine arrests and the recovery of looted goods so far, the announcement of a police inquiry into the role of its officers, and the Health Minister’s assurance that ownership will be decided by the court and that vaccination will continue.

The CSO call on the Government to:

1. Ensure a prompt, impartial and effective investigation to identify those who planned, financed or took part in the attack, regardless of political identity, and ensure accountability.

2. Publish the findings of the police inquiry and information on action taken against any person found responsible.

3. Ensure security for the Radda clinic to operate, and compensation for its losses.

4. Help Radda move its vaccination and other services from the makeshift tents to a safe temporary facility, and replace the lost vaccines and supplies, so that no child in the area misses the measlesrubella campaign, which ends on 31 October.

5. Protect all health facilities, NGOs and businesses from extortion, vandalism and forcible occupation, and treat any attack on a health facility as an emergency.

On behalf of CSO Alliance Executive Committee:

• Sara Hossain, Co-Convener, CSO Alliance and Honorary Executive Director, BLAST

• Asif Saleh, Co-Convener, CSO Alliance and Executive Director, BRAC

• Shib Narayan Kairi, Treasurer, CSO Alliance Executive Committee and Adviser, Kumudini Welfare Trust

• Rasheda K Choudhury, Member, CSO Alliance Executive Committee and Executive Director, Campaign for Popular Education (CAMPE)

• Shaheen Anam, Member, CSO Alliance Executive Committee and Executive Director, Manusher Jonno Foundation

• Hasin Jahan, Member, CSO Alliance Executive Committee and Regional Director, South Asia, WaterAid

• AKM Musha, Member, CSO Alliance Executive Committee and Country Director, Nutrition International

• KAM Morshed, Member, CSO Alliance Executive Committee and Senior Director, Advocacy & MEAL, BRAC

• Syeed Ahamed, Coordinator, CSO Alliance Secretariat; and Founder and CEO, Institute for Informed Development (IID)