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About Us

How we work

See what triggers an intervention and how supply and logistics allow our teams to respond quickly.

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How we're run

Discover our governance and what it means to be an association. Find a quick visual guide to our offices around the world.

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Reports and financials

Read through our annual financial and activity reports, and find out about where our funds come from and how they are spent.

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Accountability

Read the policies, reports, and plans on how we address issues like racism and reduce our carbon footprint, ensuring our actions align with the highest ethical standards.

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What we do

Médecins Sans Frontières brings medical humanitarian assistance to victims of conflict, natural disasters, epidemics or healthcare exclusion.

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Featured Ebola Gaza Israel war Humanitarian aid cuts

Where we work

In more than 70 countries, Médecins Sans Frontières provides medical humanitarian assistance to save lives and ease the suffering of people in crisis situations.

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Featured Haiti Palestine Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)

MSF Websites

A Global Network
Our offices around the world
Our offices around the world
Other Sites
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MSF Access

MSF Access pushes for access to, and the development of, life-saving and life-prolonging medicines, diagnostic tests and vaccines for people in our programmes and beyond.

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CRASH

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.

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UREPH

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.

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ARHP

Based in Barcelona, ARHP documents and reflects on the operational challenges and dilemmas faced by the MSF field teams.

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MSF Analysis

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.

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MSF Supply

This logistical and supply centre in Brussels provides storage of and delivers medical equipment, logistics and drugs for international purchases for MSF missions.

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MSF Logistique

This supply and logistics centre in Bordeaux, France, provides warehousing and delivery of medical equipment, logistics and drugs for international purchases for MSF missions.

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Amsterdam Procurement Unit

This logistical centre in Amsterdam purchases, tests, and stores equipment including vehicles, communications material, power supplies, water-processing facilities and nutritional supplements.

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Brazilian Medical Unit

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.

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MSF Medical Guidelines

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.

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Epicentre

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.

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Evaluation Units

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.

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LGBTQI+ Inclusion in Health Settings

MSF works with LGBTQI+ populations in many settings over the last 25-30 years. LGBTQI+ people face healthcare disparities with limited access to care and higher disease rates than the general population.

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LUXOR

The Luxembourg Operational Research (LuxOR) unit coordinates field research projects and operational research training, and provides support for documentation activities and routine data collection.

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MSF Academy for Healthcare

To upskill and provide training to locally-hired MSF staff in several countries, MSF has created the MSF Academy for Healthcare.

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Humanitarian Law

This Guide explains the terms, concepts, and rules of humanitarian law in accessible and reader-friendly alphabetical entries.

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MSF Paediatric Days

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.

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MSF Foundation

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.

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DNDi

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.

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MSF Science Portal

Our digital portal dedicated to sharing the latest medical evidence from our humanitarian activities around the globe.

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Noma

Noma is a preventable and treatable neglected disease, but 90 per cent of people will die within the first two weeks of infection if they do not receive treatment.

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TIC

The TIC is aiming to change how MSF works to better meet the evolving needs of our patients.

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Telemedicine

MSF's telemedicine hub aims to overcome geographic barriers for equitable, accessible, and quality patient care.

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Sweden Innovation Unit

Launched in 2012, the MSF Sweden Innovation Unit deploys a human-centered approach for promoting a culture of innovation within MSF.

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Geo MSF

The GeoMSF platform is a dynamic one-stop-shop website for all of MSF's GIS related services and products. Access maps and applications through the catalogue, request geographical support, or produce a map on GeoMSF.

GeoMSF
More patients are arriving at Bashair Hospital as it is the only accessible hospital in southern Khartoum. With the presence of MSF team, Bashair can support most of the critical cases and other departments at the hospital have started to operate as well.
Patients arrive at Bashair Hospital - the only accessible hospital in southern Khartoum. Sudan, May 2023.
© MSF/Ala Kheir

Five things to know about the violence in El Geneina, Sudan

Patients arrive at Bashair Hospital - the only accessible hospital in southern Khartoum. Sudan, May 2023.
© MSF/Ala Kheir
Ebola disease in DRC: find out how we're responding
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Project Update18 May 2023

On 26 April, looters targeted the El Geneina Teaching Hospital in Sudan, which is supported by Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF). Reports suggest that widespread looting, destruction and the burning of property took place in El Geneina city, the capital of West Darfur, including at sites where people displaced by the fighting are taking refuge.

Here are five things to know about the rising humanitarian needs in the area and our commitment towards supporting the communities during these challenging times.

1. Violence impedes healthcare for all

Since 2021, MSF has supported the Ministry of Health in the paediatric department of El Geneina Teaching Hospital in West Darfur, Sudan, providing emergency and inpatient care. 

Over the years we have witnessed a steady stream of patients coming not just from El Geneina city and the nearest sites for displaced families, but from all over West Darfur.

However, since 20 April, the hospital has been closed due to the violence, making it impossible for our teams to continue working on paediatrics or in the neonatology and maternity departments.

On 12 May MSF succeeded to bring in fresh supplies from El-Fasher, North Darfur to MSF supported Rokero hospital. Many people were present and welcomed the trucks, and men and women from Rokero town helped the MSF and hospital teams to unload the supplies.
MSF teams bring fresh supplies from El-Fasher, North Darfur to the MSF-supported Rokero hospital. Sudan, May 2023.
MSF

2. Attacks on the hospital

Sadly, there is a lack of respect for the protection of the hospital - we have witnessed violence, destruction, and damage within the facility. As a result, all patients and medical personnel have fled the premises despite the rising needs. 

The city of El Geneina has been victim to widespread looting since the beginning of the current conflict. Private homes, shops, pharmacies, several NGOs, as well as the Ministry of Health premises and the market, have all been targeted. 

On 26 April, El Geneina Teaching Hospital was looted, including the pharmacy and the blood bank. This creates additional challenges for medical personnel to resume activities even when the security situation improves. The paediatric department supported by MSF was also affected by the looting.

Patients wait for treatment at the MSF clinic in Zamzam camp, North Darfur
Patients wait for treatment outside the MSF clinic in Zamzam camp, North Darfur. Sudan, May 2023.
MSF

3. Conflict exacerbates existing needs

Even prior to the outbreak of the current conflict, people in West Darfur faced significant challenges, with acute humanitarian needs, a lack of functioning referral systems and high prices for medical services.

Since the current conflict began, patients have been unable to access medical care due to fear of violence both outside and within medical structures. Additionally, patients fear being targeted based on their ethnicity or affiliation. 

Despite the dangerous conditions, MSF's medical personnel continued to provide essential care to critical patients in the first week of the conflict. However, after the situation deteriorated significantly in El Geneina, medical doctors fled their homes for fear of being harmed.

El Fasher: 2 weeks since the beginning of the clashes
People wait to receive treatment at El Fasher hospital. Sudan, 1 May 2023.
MSF/Mohamed Gibreel Adam

4. Challenges in accessing healthcare

MSF teams on the ground have reported that their friends and family members have been killed or injured, unable to access the care they needed. On some days, there were no functioning healthcare facilities in all of El Geneina.

Although a few clinics would occasionally open in different neighbourhoods, they were only able to provide basic wound dressing. Access to medical items and medication remains extremely difficult in this already challenging environment.

In other locations in West Darfur, our teams have not been able to conduct mobile clinic activities in the nomadic communities of Galala, Mogshasha, Wadi Rati and Gelchek.

MSF built new ER, maternity, paediatric wards, and observation room and ITFC ate the only secondary healthcare facility in the locality in north Jebel Marra, patients were moved there in late March early April 2023.
MSF staff check on a young child in the only specialist healthcare facility in Jebel Marra. Sudan, May 2023.
MSF

5. Supporting the Ministry of Health

Since we started supporting the El Geneina Teaching hospital in 2021, MSF has worked towards the capacity-building of Ministry of Health staff and collaborated on co-managing the paediatric wards.

Key Ministry of Health staff and administrators have exhibited unwavering dedication to delivering free, high-quality basic and specialised healthcare to children. They also supported MSF in making the hospital a secure environment for patients, caretakers, and staff before the conflict erupted. Some local staff members have even endangered their lives by coming to the hospital before its closure, while others risk their lives and safety by continuing to work amidst the conflict.

MSF remains deeply committed to supporting the people of West Darfur, especially in light of the recent degradation of the security and humanitarian situation. We have provided extensive technical support to Ministry of Health staff in managing mass casualty incidents, including pre-positioning kits and donating drugs.