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.
Around one-quarter of our humanitarian and medical assistance is for populations caught in armed conflict.
Armed conflict devastates lives. Targeted, harassed and caught in hardship and poverty, people are forced into flight or live under siege and face indiscriminate attacks. Access to basic needs, like food and medical care, is often disrupted. Comprehensive medical and humanitarian support is vital, but health services are often scarce. In conflict zones, MSF does not take sides. We provide medical care based on needs alone, and work hard to reach those who need help the most.
Armed conflict causes injury, displacement and death but it continues to affect people’s health even after the frontlines have moved or the guns have fallen silent.
It devastates essential health services, disrupts medical supplies, forces medical staff to flee and leaves the national immune system broken. When deadly diseases arrive, they’re even harder to fight.
For people caught up in violence or its aftermath, it is more important than ever to have access to healthcare, shelter, sanitation and food. Just to ensure they survive in the wake of war and can look to the future.
Voices from the field
What would be unimaginable elsewhere has become normal here in Gaza.Jacob Burns, MSF Field Communications Manager
“A night in which our worst fears would come to pass”
23 Jul 2019
Afghanistan
Sharing patients’ stories “as devastating as their injuries” in Afghanistan
Voices from the Field15 Oct 2020
Nigeria
“When I think about going home, I remind myself that a live dog is better than a dead lion”
Voices from the Field1 Sep 2020
Cameroon
A hospital at the heart of the North-West crisis in Cameroon
Project Update1 Sep 2020
Burkina Faso
Displaced in Burkina Faso face extra challenges amid increasing violence and rain
Project Update16 Jul 2020
Mozambique
“It was like the end of the world” during attack in northern Mozambique
Voices from the Field30 Jun 2020
Syria
Life in an open-air prison: living under the bombs in Idlib
Voices from the Field29 Jun 2020
Yemen
Behind the conflict in Yemen
MSF Storymaps.25 Jun 2020
South Sudan
Intense fighting in eastern South Sudan once again forces thousands to flee
Statement24 Jun 2020
Burkina Faso
Out of sight, people suffer from rise in violence in eastern Burkina Faso
Op-Ed5 Jun 2020
Research & analysis
Central African Republic
Unprotected: Report on violence and lack of protection for civilians in CAR
Report19 Feb 2019
War and conflict
Humanitarian Wars? - Interview with Rony Brauman
msf-crash.org19 Feb 2018
Book
Humanitarian Negotiations Revealed: The MSF experience
22 Nov 2011
Book
Related topics
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.
In Focus
Kunduz hospital attack
On 3 October 2015, US airstrikes destroyed our trauma hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan, killing 42 people. Our request for an independent investigation has so far gone unanswered.
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.
