In more than 70 countries, Médecins Sans Frontières provides medical humanitarian assistance to save lives and ease the suffering of people in crisis situations.
We set up the MSF Access Campaign in 1999 to push for access to, and the development of, life-saving and life-prolonging medicines, diagnostic tests and vaccines for people in our programmes and beyond.
Based in Paris, CRASH conducts and directs studies and analysis of MSF actions. They participate in internal training sessions and assessment missions in the field.
Based in Geneva, UREPH (or Research Unit) aims to improve the way MSF projects are implemented in the field and to participate in critical thinking on humanitarian and medical action.
Based in Brussels, MSF Analysis intends to stimulate reflection and debate on humanitarian topics organised around the themes of migration, refugees, aid access, health policy and the environment in which aid operates.
This logistical and supply centre in Brussels provides storage of and delivers medical equipment, logistics and drugs for international purchases for MSF missions.
This supply and logistics centre in Bordeaux, France, provides warehousing and delivery of medical equipment, logistics and drugs for international purchases for MSF missions.
This logistical centre in Amsterdam purchases, tests, and stores equipment including vehicles, communications material, power supplies, water-processing facilities and nutritional supplements.
SAMU provides strategic, clinical and implementation support to various MSF projects with medical activities related to HIV and TB. This medical unit is based in Cape Town, South Africa.
BRAMU specialises in neglected tropical diseases, such as dengue and Chagas, and other infectious diseases. This medical unit is based in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Our medical guidelines are based on scientific data collected from MSF’s experiences, the World Health Organization (WHO), other renowned international medical institutions, and medical and scientific journals.
Providing epidemiological expertise to underpin our operations, conducting research and training to support our goal of providing medical aid in areas where people are affected by conflict, epidemics, disasters, or excluded from health care.
Evaluation Units have been established in Vienna, Stockholm, and Paris, assessing the potential and limitations of medical humanitarian action, thereby enhancing the effectiveness of our medical humanitarian work.
The Luxembourg Operational Research (LuxOR) unit coordinates field research projects and operational research training, and provides support for documentation activities and routine data collection.
The MSF Paediatric Days is an event for paediatric field staff, policy makers and academia to exchange ideas, align efforts, inspire and share frontline research to advance urgent paediatric issues of direct concern for the humanitarian field.
The MSF Foundation aims to create a fertile arena for logistics and medical knowledge-sharing to meet the needs of MSF and the humanitarian sector as a whole.
A collaborative, patients’ needs-driven, non-profit drug research and development organisation that is developing new treatments for neglected diseases, founded in 2003 by seven organisations from around the world.
Decades of conflict have ruined Afghanistan’s economy and infrastructure and many people rely on humanitarian aid. Our teams are currently responding to the COVID-19 pandemic in the country.
MSF focuses on emergency, paediatric, and maternal healthcare in Afghanistan, which has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the world.
We work in one hospital in Helmand province in collaboration with the Ministry of Public Health. We run a maternity hospital in rural Khost province, a drug-resistant tuberculosis programme in Kandahar, and a wound care clinic in Kunduz. We also provide care to displaced people in Herat province.
"There’s still very much an ongoing conflict in Afghanistan"
A country still at war
MSF country representative Djoen Besselink gave us an update on the situation in Afghanistan today.
Speaking at the end of 2018, Djoen describes a country still at war, and explains the impact of the long-term conflict on humanitarian needs and healthcare coverage – even in Kabul, a city flooded by a massive influx of people fleeing the active fighting in other areas of the country.
What are we doing in Afghanistan?
01Maternal healthcare
By providing free, high quality maternal and neonatal healthcare in two hospitals in Helmand and Khost provinces, we aim to help reduce death and sickness in mothers and their newborns. Training medical staff is an integral and important part of our projects.
02Tuberculosis treatment
We support the diagnosis and treatment of drug-resistant tuberculosis. In Kandahar province, in the south of the country, we run a laboratory, as well as facilities for hosting patients during their treatment.
03Trauma care
Our trauma centre in Kunduz was destroyed in US airstrikes killing 42 people, in October 2015. In 2017, we returned to Kunduz and opened an outpatient clinic for people with minor trauma-related wounds and injuries, and a new trauma care centre is under construction.
In Herat, in the country’s northwest, we provide medical care to people who have been displaced due to conflict and drought. We are currently running an inpatient therapeutic feeding centre in Herat regional hospital’s paediatric department for the malnourished children of displaced families.
In 2019
307,200
307,2
outpatient consultations
59,900
59,9
births assisted
6,280
6,28
surgical interventions
1980
198
Year MSF first worked in the country
Afghanistan
Tackling child malnutrition in Helmand
Project Update19 Jul 2012
Afghanistan
Providing surgical care
Project Update21 May 2012
Afghanistan
MSF condemns attack on medical facility and suspends activities in Khost
Press Release17 Apr 2012
Afghanistan
'No Weapons, No Fees' - MSF in Afghanistan
Project Update6 Mar 2012
Afghanistan
MSF opens maternity hospital in Khost
Press Release5 Mar 2012
Afghanistan
MSF treats wounded after Kunduz protests
Press Release26 Feb 2012
Afghanistan
MSF treats victims of bomb blast in central Kunduz
Project Update12 Dec 2011
Afghanistan
MSF opens a surgical hospital in Kunduz
Project Update18 Oct 2011
Afghanistan
Immediate care given to victims of military bus attack in Afghanistan
Voices from the Field12 Apr 2011
Afghanistan
Dangerous aid in Afghanistan
Voices from the Field12 Jan 2011
Afghanistan
Reinforcing emergency healthcare in Helmand, Afghanistan
Project Update10 Jul 2010
Afghanistan
Working to improve paediatric care in Boost hospital Helmand province Afghanistan
Project Update10 Jul 2010
Research & Analysis
Attacks on medical care
Kunduz, Afghanistan, 36°43’4.91’’N, 68°51’43.96’’
Opinion10 Nov 2015
Afghanistan
The attack on Kunduz trauma centre
Voices from the Field1 Jul 2016
Afghanistan
Between rhetoric and reality: The ongoing struggle to access healthcare in Afghanistan
Report25 Feb 2014
Related Topics
Crisis Settings
War and conflict
Around one-quarter of our humanitarian and medical assistance is for populations caught in armed conflict.
Medical Activities
Women's health
An estimated 99 per cent of women who die in childbirth or from pregnancy-related complications live in developing countries. Most of these deaths are preventable.
In Focus
Attacks on medical care
Attacks against medical facilities and health workers, whether deliberate or indiscriminate, are part of generalised violence and atrocities committed against civilians in armed conflict. They deprive populations of health services, often when they need them the most.
Up Next
As conflict rages, Afghanistan remains one of the most dangerous places in the world to give birth
