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"I was at home with my husband that day. It was during the violence and fighting. We heard screams outside and neighbours crying. “I think they’ve killed someone,” my husband said. So we shut ourselves inside. We didn’t want to open the door. Armed men threw tear gas through the window to force us out. Eight people came into our home. They threatened to kill my husband and tried to force him to rape our daughter. She was 17. He refused and they murdered him. Then they raped our daughter, and me.

When they left, I hid in the forest next to the village with my children. I didn’t sleep or eat. For a year, before coming to the clinic, I was terrified by the thought that I could have HIV.

When I went back to Kananga – my father was very sick so I decided to return with my children – I went to see MSF at the hospital where they looked after victims of sexual violence. They examined me and told me that I didn’t have HIV."

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"J’étais à la maison avec mon mari ce jour-là. C’était pendant le conflit et les affrontements. Nous avons entendu des cris de dehors et les voisins qui pleuraient. Mon mari m’a dit : « je crois qu’ils ont tué quelqu’un ». Nous nous sommes alors enfermés dans la maison et n’avons pas voulu ouvrir la porte. Des hommes armés ont lancé du gaz lacrymogène par la fenêtre pour nous obliger à ouvrir. Huit personnes sont entrées dans la maison. Ils ont menacé de mort mon mari et l’ont obligé à violer notre fille de 17 ans. Il a refusé et ils l’ont tué. Ensuite, ils ont violé notre fille, et moi aussi.

Quand ils sont partis, je suis partie dans la forêt, à côté du village, avec mes enfants. Je ne dormais pas et ne mangeais pas. Pendant un an, avant que je ne vienne à la clinique, j’étais très angoissée à la pensée d’avoir peut être contracté le VIH.

Mais quand j’ai dû rentrer à Kananga – mon père était très malade et j’ai donc décidé de m’y rendre avec mes enfants. Je me su
Democratic Republic of Congo

Sexual violence committed by armed men in Kasai

Between May 2017 and September 2018, MSF treated 2,600 victims of sexual violence in the town of Kananga in Kasai Central, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Eighty per cent reported having been raped by armed men. Press Release - 1 Nov 2018
 
Giakila, left, has been diagnosed with drug-resistant TB. Here she talks to MSF's counsellor about her medication. The counsellor uses the rice in the sample jars to explain how the amount of sputum in her lungs will reduce each month as she continues to take medication.
Tuberculosis

High prices restrict access to best drug-resistant tuberculosis treatment

MSF calls on US pharma corporation Johnson & Johnson to halve the price of the newer TB drug bedaquiline. Press Release - 23 Oct 2018
 
The regional processing centres known as RP3 and Anijuo, September 2017.
Nauru

Refugees' lives in danger with MSF forced to end mental healthcare activities

After almost a year of activity in Nauru, MSF has been informed by the government that our mental health activities were “no longer required”. We are extremely concerned for the impact this decision will have on our patients. Press Release - 11 Oct 2018
 
Fatouma Adamou and Iscander Raingou-Mounchili are doing the evening visit in a phase 2 tent.
Niger

One of the world’s biggest paediatric intensive care units is full

The 200-bed paediatric intensive care unit in Magaria, Niger, is overwhelmed as MSF teams tackle an unprecedented malaria peak in a hospital that covers a region of one million people.

Press Release - 25 Sep 2018
 
XDR-TB patient Nischaya, at home in the Ambedkar Nagar area of Mumbai, studying for her exams. Beside her bed, her father is putting in order her box of TB medication.

Nischaya (not real name) is 18 years old, lives in Mumbai, and is one of only a handful of extensively drug-resistant TB (XDR-TB) patients in India lucky enough to be able to have acesss to the new drugs. After having been on treatment unsuccessfully for several years, Nischaya was referred to the clinic of Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) / Doctors Without Borders, an international medical humanitarian organisation who since 2006 provides free diagnosis, treatment and support to patients with drug-resistant TB in Mumbai.
Tuberculosis

Global leaders must make bold commitments at first-ever UN tuberculosis summit

As world leaders meet at first-ever UN TB summit, MSF highlights urgent need to scale up newer tools available today to save lives, and develop a fast, safe and simple cure for TB Press Release - 25 Sep 2018
 
Central Mediterranean – 23 September, 2018 – Over the past 72 hours, Aquarius assisted two boats in distress and now has more than 60 survivors on board, several of whom are psychologically distressed and fatigued from their journeys at sea and experiences in Libya. 
SOS Mediterrannee and MSF are reeling from the announcement by the Panama Maritime Authority it has been forced to revoke the registration of the Aquarius under blatant economic and political pressure from the Italian government.
“Five years after the Lampedusa tragedy, when European leaders said ‘never again’ and Italy launched its first large scale search and rescue operation, people are still risking their lives to escape from Libya . News from the Panama Maritime Authority arrived to the Aquarius while its teams were engaged in an active search and rescue operation in the Central Mediterranean.
Mediterranean migration

Italian government pressures Panama to stop Aquarius rescues on world's deadliest maritime route

SOS MEDITERRANEE and MSF demand that European governments allow the Aquarius to continue its rescue mission. Press Release - 23 Sep 2018
 
Thousands of people seeking safety after fleeing countries such as Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq, Sudan, and Congo continue to risk their lives to reach Europe. Those who try to arrive via Turkey and the Aegean Sea have been trapped for an indefinite period of time on islands in Greece as part of the EU/Turkey deal and its deterrence and containment approach. 
In Moria refugee camp, on Lesbos island, there are currently more than 7,500 people in a camp made for a maximum of 2,500. With the camp so full, refugees are now staying in an informal extension of the camp known as Olive Grove. The awful conditions at Moria camp/Olive Grove and arbitrary administrative situations have had a dramatic impact on their health and in particular their mental health. 
Médecins Sans Frontières teams provide medical and mental health support outside Moria camp and run a clinic for severe mental health cases in Mytilene, the capital of the island.
Greece

Self-harm and attempted suicides increasing for child refugees in Lesbos

MSF teams seeing increasing levels of suicide attempts and self-harm among child refugees on Lesbos, urge Greece and the EU to evacuate vulnerable refugees.

Press Release - 17 Sep 2018
 
Olena Melnikova, receiving hepatitis C medications, 2018
Hepatitis C

MSF calls for end to Gilead’s hepatitis C drug monopoly

This week in Munich, the European Patent Office is hearing a legal challenge filed by groups in 17 countries in March 2017, against an unmerited patent that allows US pharmaceutical corporation Gilead Sciences to charge exorbitant prices in Europe for the key hepatitis C drug sofosbuvir Press Release - 11 Sep 2018
 
Damaged building in Bin Ashour area consequence of a rocket fired by unknown militia during the fighting that erupted in Tripoli on 26th of August.
Libya

Evacuation of refugees and migrants out of Libya is urgently needed

Thousands of refugees, migrants and asylum seekers arbitrarily held in Libyan detention centres must be immediately released and evacuated to safety out of the country. Press Release - 7 Sep 2018
 
Men detained in Abu Salim detention centre, in Tripoli, Libya.
Libya

Conflict in Tripoli puts lives in danger, demonstrating that Libya is not a place of safety

MSF calls on European governments to acknowledge that Libya is not a place of safety. More must be done to help people trapped within its borders to find a safe and dignified way out. Press Release - 31 Aug 2018
Four mothers posing in a corridor of the Hospital in Bili. All four of them are staying in the hospital with their child, that's suffering from a severe case of malaria. Since the beginning of the project in 2016, the pediatric ward already treated more than 4.000 cases of complicated/severe form of malaria.
Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF)

Independent medical humanitarian assistance

We provide medical assistance to people affected by conflict, epidemics, disasters, or exclusion from healthcare. Our teams are made up of tens of thousands of health professionals, logistic and administrative staff - most of them hired locally. Our actions are guided by medical ethics and the principles of independence and impartiality. We are a non-profit, self-governed, member-based organisation.

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