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.
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.
Read through case studies where we openly examine and analyse all our actions and decision-making processes during humanitarian emergencies that have led us to speak out.
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.
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.
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.
Years of conflict have forced millions of people from their homes.
Exposed to extreme violence and living in fear for their lives, hundreds of thousands of people in South Sudan are unable to access basic necessities such as food, water and healthcare. We work in hospitals and clinics throughout the country, where we are running some of our biggest programmes worldwide. Our teams provide basic and specialised healthcare and respond to emergencies and outbreaks affecting isolated communities, internally displaced people and refugees from Sudan.
0
1,154,600
outpatient consultations
0
334,400
patients treated for malaria
0
47,200
patients admitted to hospital
Why are we here?
01Conflict and displacement
Tens of thousands of people in South Sudan have died and roughly one in three have been forced from their homes since renewed conflict broke out in December 2013. Our teams are constantly on the move to continue to provide displaced people with medical care. Our South Sudanese staff have also been displaced, and have continued to care for patients while hiding from violence. We also provide much-needed medical and mental health care in Protection of Civilians camps, where hundreds of thousands of people remain trapped in a hostile and insalubrious environment.
02Insufficient healthcare
Medical care is practically non-existent for people living in remote areas of South Sudan, even those spared from much of the violence associated with the war. We run hospitals and clinics and support existing state facilities, in particular with maternal, paediatric and neonatal care and outbreak response. We train community healthcare workers, run outreach and preventive activities such as vaccination campaigns, and treat diseases such as tuberculosis and kala azar (visceral leishmaniasis).
03Malaria
Malaria is one of the leading causes of sickness and death in South Sudan, especially among children. Hundreds of thousands of people are at risk of contracting malaria during the three-month malaria peak, which begins in the country’s rainy season and can overwhelm medical workers.
04Malnutrition
At their peak in 2017, malnutrition rates among our patients in Pibor were three times higher than the previous year. We carried out an emergency nutritional intervention here and in response to reports of alarming levels of malnutrition in Mayendit and Leer counties.
05Cholera
Like malaria, cholera is endemic in South Sudan. As well as vaccinating almost 200,000 people in the capital, Juba, in cooperation with the Ministry of Health, our teams responded to outbreaks in Lankien and Aburoc in 2017.
06Sudanese refugees
We provide basic and specialised healthcare for Sudanese refugees living in camps in Yida and Doro and for the surrounding communities, including mass vaccinations and treatment for malaria and malnutrition.
video
Bringing Care to the Swamps of South Sudan
South Sudan
Medical assistance for people seeking safety in swamplands
In Old Fangak MSF provides medical care to those fleeing violence
In South Sudan, people fleeing violence have taken refuge in Old Fangak (Jonglei state), an area surrounded by swamps and rivers which makes it difficult for armed groups to reach. The remote setting also makes it hard for people to reach medical care. Despite the logistical challenges, MSF manages to provide the only medical aid available here. This video, from May 2018, is an example of what many people suffer in South Sudan and what MSF teams do to provide assistance.
South Sudan
MSF resumes medical activities in Maban after suspension
Project Update5 Oct 2018
South Sudan
Helping Yambio’s demobilised child soldiers come to terms with their past
Project Update5 Oct 2018
South Sudan
MSF suspends the majority of medical activities in Maban area after a violent attack
Statement24 Jul 2018
Sudan
Hardships follow South Sudan’s refugees into Sudan’s East Darfur
Project Update23 Jul 2018
Photo Story
A hospital in the swamp
20 Jul 2018
Photo Story
South Sudan
HIV Test and Treat pilot project in Yambio comes to a close
Press Release27 Jun 2018
South Sudan
Yambio: HIV community-based Test and Treat pilot project
Report27 Jun 2018
South Sudan
People caught in the frontlines of intense fighting in country’s north
Press Release31 May 2018
South Sudan
The mounting mental health toll in Upper Nile State
Voices from the Field17 Apr 2018
1983
1983
Year MSF first worked in the country
Related topics
Crisis Settings
War and conflict
Around one-third of our humanitarian and medical assistance is for populations caught in armed conflict.
Crisis Settings
Refugees, IDPs and people on the move
There are many reasons for flight, including war, persecution, conflict, natural disaster, destitution and repression. With health and well-being jeopardised, the lives of the most vulnerable can be at risk.
Medical Activities
Malaria
Each year, malaria kills nearly half a million people. 70 per cent of all deaths are children under five years of age.
Medical Activities
Malnutrition
More than 224 million children around the world last year suffered from malnutrition. It is the underlying contributing factor in nearly half of the deaths of children under five years of age.
Medical Activities
Cholera
Although easy to prevent and treat, cholera affects up to 4 million people worldwide per year, resulting in up to 140,000 deaths.
![Bringing Medical Care by Boat in South Sudan [ENG]](https://msf-media.imgix.net/Docs/MSF/Media/TR1/1/4/b/9/MSF235563.jpg "Bringing Medical Care by Boat in South Sudan [ENG]")
