Médecins Sans Frontières

As conflict continues to rage across Rakhine state, Myanmar, we’re reiterating our call for the protection of civilians.

📢 Ongoing fighting is impacting people’s ability to safely seek medical care in Yemen. This morning, a strike hit only 150 metres away from Mocha General hospital, where our teams are working in the maternity and paediatric wards.

Another senseless Russian attack has killed and wounded people in Dnipropetrovsk region, Ukraine. Our colleagues responded alongside local medical staff to treat 15 people, including four with severe injuries. Read more:

🎨 What do children in Gaza draw during mental health counselling sessions? Motassem drew “fetching water and the army throwing shells… and the tanks and the quadcopter drone…” Amid Israel’s genocide, the drawings of children reflect their psychological distress:

💬 “We just want to go home. Back home, we will be able to find food…” In Busuma camp, Burundi, people who fled violence in DRC are living in difficult conditions. Despite the ongoing insecurity back home in DRC, many refugees say they would rather return than remain at Busuma camp:

Ten years ago, French police dismantled the ‘Jungle’ displacement camp in Calais, forcefully evacuating its communities. Today, these communities still need shelter and protection. Only now, they have to seek it in scattered areas, far from services and protection mechanisms.

❌ Cost ❌ Distance In Syria, these are two barriers that people face when seeking healthcare. By supporting more than 20 general healthcare centres across 10 governorates, we’re working to reduce them both:

On Yemen’s western coast, families are seeking safety away from the frontline of fighting. At displacement camps, our teams are treating people for health issues linked to poor living conditions, such as respiratory tract infections:

In Gaza, many children have had their childhood defined by fear and violence. This is reflected in what they draw during mental health counselling sessions: quadcopters, tents, queues for food, rubble.

In Aden and Lahj governorates, Yemen, our teams are visiting displacement camps where new families have recently arrived. They’re seeing that living conditions at the camps must be urgently improved:

“We try to remind the children of their humanity and that they are children.” In Gaza, our colleagues run mental health counselling sessions for children where music, games, stories, and drawing provide an opportunity for expression:

We are using mobile clinics to bring medical care to newly displaced families in Aden and Lahj governorates, Yemen. At these clinics, we’re treating people for health issues related to their long journeys and poor living conditions ⬇️

🎨 During mental health sessions, our colleagues in Gaza ask children to draw what is on their minds. These drawings show their reality of violence and fear, and memories of safety and play:

Dr Rupa Narra is a paediatrician who just returned from North Kivu province, Democratic Republic of Congo, where she worked for 6 weeks in an Ebola treatment centre. She shares her concern about the number of children being affected by the current Ebola disease outbreak ⬇️

🎥 “… I came to know that seeking help is not a weakness.” In Syria, years of war, displacement and uncertainty have had a lasting impact on people’s mental health. Three of our colleagues reflect on the stigma surrounding mental health and why asking for help matters:

Ebola disease is deadly for all age groups, but children are particularly vulnerable, with the youngest facing the highest risk of death. In DRC, the Ebola response needs a child-centred approach to medical care, planning, and research ⬇️

Since our founding in 1971, we’ve grown to a global movement delivering emergency medical care in over 70 countries. Thanks to our 7 million individual donors, we provide care where it’s needed.

📢 Children must be included in ongoing and future studies on the current Ebola disease outbreak in DRC. “Children cannot continue to wait for data generated in adults before benefiting from advances in Ebola care and prevention”:

Since completing mental health counselling sessions herself, Nasrine Jalal has been volunteering in her community in Zalingei, Sudan. She encourages people to seek support by reminding them that no one has to face difficult times alone.

Children are being left behind in the research of innovative medical tools for the current Ebola disease outbreak in DRC. Children are also disproportionately impacted by the outbreak, with the youngest facing the highest risk of death.

Aida is a cervical cancer patient in Malawi. Sometimes, she had to leave home at four in the morning to reach care.  Now, our teams bring palliative care to her doorstep. Read about other women who, like Aida, now receive palliative care closer to home:

Seeking safety is not a crime.

In Malawi, women with cervical cancer sometimes travel for hours to reach care. As their condition worsens, that journey becomes unmanageable.  📸 Read about how our teams are responding:

📍Kayna, DRC A mobile team has arrived in this area of North Kivu province to support the Ebola disease response. We’re implementing infection prevention and control measures, providing patient care, and carrying out awareness-raising activities. Learn more from our colleague, Clarisse Amunazo⬇️

In Greece, our team of psychologists work with people seeking safety, helping them cope with their trauma as they adapt to new realities, care for their families, and look for ways to rebuild their lives ⬇️

In Malawi, women with cervical cancer need palliative care to improve their quality of life and preserve their dignity. But the worse their condition gets, the less they can travel to reach care. That's why our teams travel to them instead. 📸 Read our photo story:

🔴 Trapped 🔴 Unsafe 🔴 Deprived of autonomy These are words that people seeking safety in Greece have used to describe their feelings to our psychologists. These feelings are often brought on by the environment at reception facilities:

The ongoing escalation in the south of Yemen is adding new pressure to an already overstretched medical system. To respond, we’re supporting health facilities and running mobile clinics. 

If this is not a ceasefire, what is it? “An illusion.” Our colleagues in Gaza, Palestine, answer three questions about the ceasefire that was announced one year ago:

People who are seeking safety in Greece often arrive exhausted from the unsafe conditions of their journey and experiences in their country of origin. Navigating restrictive migration policies can then further deteriorate their mental health:

“I believe that resilience doesn’t come only with hardships. It also comes when we support each other.” For #WorldMentalHealthDay, our colleague Nusrat shares important messages about seeking help when it is needed 👇

One year ago, a ceasefire was announced in Gaza. Today, Israel continues to: ⚫ Kill Palestinians and destroy civilian infrastructure ⚫ Restrict aid and cut essential services ⚫ Force people into an ever-shrinking space This is not a ceasefire, this is a genocide.

In the south of Yemen, people are taking long and dangerous journeys to flee recent fighting. We’re sending mobile clinics to displacement camps, where our teams are treating people for skin infections, fever, diarrhoea, and communicable diseases:

“When a power station or water treatment plant is attacked… it is seen in the next cholera ward, filled with patients, some of whom will die.” Read more about Sudan's conflict-driven cholera outbreak:

🔴 Five things to know about the situation in the south of Yemen today:

To bring the Ebola disease outbreak under control in Democratic Republic of Congo, “building trust between local communities and response teams is just as important as expanding treatment capacity”. ⬇️

In Sudan, surges in cholera cases “followed the rhythms of war rather than the seasons or the weather”. Read the full op-ed:

“It is like fighting a megafire.” In the north of North Kivu province, Democratic Republic of Congo, new hotspots of the Ebola disease outbreak continue to emerge: