Our concerns
Inadequate access to healthcare
The second wave of COVID-19 is increasing the pressure on already scarce healthcare resources, including ICU beds.
Inadequate access to healthcare
The second wave of COVID-19 is increasing the pressure on already scarce healthcare resources, including ICU beds.
Supporting health authorities
In response to the second wave, we started supporting the Cliniques Universitaires de Kinshasa (CUK)—the Kinshasa University clinics—to treat moderate and severe COVID-19 patients.
Providing essentials
Our teams have donated materials such as masks and handwashing stations, while monitoring and being ready to support the response to any decline in the health situation.
Community education
Across all our projects in Democratic Republic of Congo, our teams are working on raising awareness about the outbreak and prevention measures, particularly with people living with a disability, orphans, and the elderly.
Supporting vulnerable populations
MSF has started an intervention in the health zone of Nsele, a poor and remote area on the outskirts of Kinshasa, after the emergence of a new and virulent outbreak of COVID-19.
Médecins Sans Frontières is providing support and medical care around the world to counter the COVID-19 pandemic. We’re providing essential care through dedicated COVID-19 facilities, equipping frontline medical staff with PPE and training, and supporting health authorities through testing and community education.
With 50 years of experience fighting epidemics, we’re committed to protecting the most vulnerable and saving lives.
Since 1981 Médecins Sans Frontières has been running some of its largest programs in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), where millions of people are displaced due to armed conflict and longstanding crises, as well as outbreaks of disease across the country.
Until recently, the country has been at the centre of what some observers have called “Africa’s world war”: the five-year conflict saw government forces, supported by Angola, Namibia and Zimbabwe, clash with rebels backed by Uganda and Rwanda.
Despite a peace deal and the formation of a transitional government in 2003, people in the east of the country remain in fear of death, rape or displacement by marauding militias and the army.
MSF teams work in North and South Kivu, Kasai, Ituri and Tanganyika, among other areas.
Rwandan Refugee Camps in Zaire and Tanzania 1994-1995
Following the 1994 Rwandan Genocide, nearly 2 million ethnic Hutus fled across the border into eastern DRC, as well as Tanzania and Burundi, where they settled in large refugee camps. Humanitarian access to the camps was severely limited, or outright denied; and refugees were subjected to targeted armed attacks by Rwandan and Burundian armies, as well as the AFDL (Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Congo) forces.
MSF tried to provide aid to both refugees and local populations caught in the fighting. These teams came face to face with the AFDL’s and the Rwandan army’s bloody methods, which included using humanitarian organisations as a lure to draw refugees out of hiding.
In the years since the atrocity, MSF released a detailed case study, highlighting the dilemmas that emerge from humanitarian involvement in conflict situations. The report outlines the decision for MSF staff to speak out.
Médecins Sans Frontières has been working in Afghanistan since 1980, providing emergency surgical care, responding to conflict and natural disasters, and treating people cut off from healthcare.
MSF worked in Angola from 1983 until 2007. Why were we there? Armed conflict Endemic/Epidemic disease Social violence/Healthcare exclusion
MSF worked in Argentina from 2001 until 2003. Why were we there? Providing essential medicines and supplies
Why are we there? Endemic/epidemic disease Social violence/healthcare exclusion Natural disaster
Cameroon is facing multiple and overlapping crises, including recurrent epidemics, malnutrition due to food insecurity, displacement, and conflict.
Why are we there? Armed conflict Endemic/epidemic disease Healthcare exclusion
Why are we there? Armed conflict Healthcare exclusion Natural disaster
The political, economic and military crises of 2002-2010 have taken a severe toll on the Ivorian health system.
MSF worked in Ecuador until 2007. Why were we there? Endemic/Epidemic disease Natural disaster
In France, we work with migrants and refugees, who encounter policies and practices aimed at preventing them from settling or claiming their rights.
Why are we there? Armed conflict Endemic/epidemic disease Social violence/heathcare exclusion
Haiti’s healthcare system remains precarious in the wake of natural disasters and ongoing political and economic crises. Ongoing disasters have led to Haiti becoming the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere.
Honduras has experienced years of political, economic and social instability, and has one of the highest rates of violence in the world. This has great medical, psychological and social consequences for people.
An MSF team in Hong Kong opened a project at the end of January focusing on health education for vulnerable people. Community engagement is a crucial activity of any outbreak response and in Hong Kong, this focuses on groups who are less likely to have access to important medical information, such as the socio-economically disadvantaged. The team is also targeting those who are more vulnerable to developing severe disease if they are infected, such as the elderly.
MSF worked in Indonesia between 1995 and 2009 Why were we there? Natural disaster
Jordan hosts over 700,000 refugees, according to the UNHCR, many of whom reside in camps or have settled in the country.
Although health services are being progressively restored in Liberia, important gaps persist, notably in specialised paediatric care and mental health.
Libya remains fragmented by a decade of conflict and political instability. The breakdown of law and order, the collapse of the economy, and fighting have decimated the healthcare system.
Access to medical care remains very limited in the north and centre of Mali due to a lack of medical staff and supplies and spiralling violence between armed groups.
In Mozambique we are responding to emergencies including disease outbreaks, providing care to people with advanced HIV, while also working in the conflict-ridden Cabo-Delgado province.
Why are we there? Endemic/epidemic disease Social violence/healthcare exclusion
Why are we there? Providing comprehensive emergency healthcare to people in remote regions of Pakistan is a priority, yet accessibility and security are a constraint for both Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) and patients.
At the end of 2007, MSF ended its activities in Rwanda after 16 years in the country. MSF's work included assistance to displaced persons, war surgery, programmes for unaccompanied children and street children, support to victims traumatised by the conflict, programmes to improve access to healthcare, responding to epidemics such as malaria, cholera and tuberculosis, and projects linked to maternal and reproductive health.
Why are we there? Endemic/epidemic disease Healthcare exclusion
Why are we there? Armed conflict Endemic/epidemic disease Healthcare exclusion
Why are we there? Armed conflict Endemic/Epidemic disease Healthcare exclusion
Why are we there? Endemic/epidemic disease Social violence Healthcare exclusion