Stories & News

In this first part of a two-part series, MSF staff at a hospital in Myanmar's largest city, Yangon, talk to Shinjiro Murata, general director of MSF Japan, about the complex challenges of delivering healthcare to people in Myanmar.

The war in Ukraine has been ongoing since 2014, with a massive escalation in 2022, with the most intense frontline areas in the east, southeast, and northeast of Ukraine.

Microbiologist Candice Lynch explains the importance of being flexible when working with Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF), the challenges she faced, and her advice for other medical scientists interested in working overseas. 

Dr Tejshri Shah, General Director of MSF and a paediatrician specialising in infectious diseases, recently returned from North Kivu, an eastern province of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the country at the epicenter of the current mpox epidemic in Africa. 

Large-scale military incursions launched by Israeli forces on Palestine’s West Bank, and repeated attacks by the Israeli military on health workers, ambulances and medical facilities, are severely hindering people’s ability to access medical care, says international medical organisation Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF).  

For over 10 months, the war in Gaza has led to the displacement of over 1.9 million people. Often forced to move within minutes of the announcement of an evacuation order by Israeli forces, many have now been displaced numerous times. 

Obstetrician-Gynaecologist Shanti Hegde is currently in Blantyre, Malawi, on her 16th assignment with Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF). Malawi has the second highest cervical cancer rate in the world, with over 4,000 women falling sick with the disease every year. Shanti is working on MSF’s cervical cancer program to improve early prevention, diagnosis and treatment. She kindly spoke to us about her role in this project, and what keeps her coming back to MSF. 

Today marks 500 days since the war began in Sudan, and the beginning of the current—unprecedented—humanitarian crisis. 

More than 10 million people have been displaced, according to the UN, with evidence of ethnically motivated and sexual violence emerging. Severe acute malnutrition is being reported in several areas, and infectious diseases like cholera are spreading rapidly. 

As Rohingya become increasingly trapped by raging conflict in Myanmar's Rakhine state, those who cannot pay their way across the border into Bangladesh are being left without protection or assistance.   

Myanmar is facing an acute humanitarian crisis since fighting escalated at the end of October 2023. Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is witnessing a near total absence of humanitarian assistance for communities who rely on it, including the Rohingya – one of the most vulnerable people groups in the world.