In 2025, amid a climate of aid cuts and anti-humanitarian rhetoric, the scale of people’s needs was highlighted — whether due to war, internal instability, disease outbreaks, or difficulty accessing medical care. Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) teams around the world worked to assist people in 72 countries, in ongoing acts of solidarity.
Threats to humanitarian response
Humanitarian funding had been declining in the years before the United States abruptly froze foreign assistance in January 2025, coinciding with the beginning of President Trump’s second term. The US administration gutted vital funding to the Global Fund, Gavi, and PEPFAR (the US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief), and shuttered USAID, cutting off support to lifesaving health programs. Other governments also cut their aid funding.
Financially, MSF was not directly affected by the funding cuts, but our teams spent most of the year trying to understand and navigate the gaps left behind, as organizations around us closed or scaled back their activities. Consequently, in some places, demand for our services increased.
In Somalia, disruptions to aid halted shipments of therapeutic milk for months. As a result, the number of severely malnourished children admitted to MSF-supported facilities rose by 73 percent in the first nine months of 2025, compared to the same period in 2024.
2.9 million
emergency room admissions in 2025
3.5 million
malaria cases treated by MSF in 2025
17 million
outpatient consultations provided by MSF in 2025
In Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), we made unplanned purchases of antiretroviral medicines to provide to some groups of people living with HIV after their treatment programs were stopped. We also made unplanned purchases of post-exposure prophylaxis for HIV, which is used to treat victims and survivors of sexual violence, after the dismantling of USAID led to the cancelation of an order of 100,000 post-rape kits.
Sudan: The world’s worst humanitarian crisis
April 2025 marked two years since the outbreak of conflict in Sudan, waged between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and their allies. Both sides have committed atrocities, especially in Darfur. The scenes in Zamzam camp and nearby El Fasher were particularly ghastly following ethnic cleansing by the RSF.
Although we were able to regain access to the capital, Khartoum, the situation for people in many parts of the country remains dire, as the health system has collapsed and few humanitarian organizations are present. In 2025, our teams responded to high levels of malnutrition and mental health issues, as well as horrific sexual violence. The crisis is not contained within Sudan; hundreds of thousands of people have fled into neighboring Chad and South Sudan, where we also work.
However, our efforts in Sudan were often constrained by high levels of violence in some areas, or by bureaucratic demands, which hindered the transport of staff and supplies. In Zalingei, measles cases surged in the last quarter of the year following a failure to deliver and coordinate measles vaccines. It all translates to an insufficient humanitarian response, making Sudan the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.
Genocide in Gaza
In Gaza, Palestine, Israel continued to pursue what has now been widely described as a genocide, in retaliation for the horrendous attacks committed by Hamas in October 2023. Israeli forces continued to kill Palestinians, displace them from their neighborhoods, and deny sufficient supplies of food and water, and access to health care.
In late May, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, an Israeli-US initiative, was launched as part of a cynical, degrading attempt at providing ‘aid.’ Its food distribution sites soon degenerated into scenes of slaughter, with around 2,600 people killed and thousands more injured. We treated many people who had been wounded or traumatized by what they had seen.
Living conditions for people in Gaza City and the north of the Strip deteriorated even further in September 2025, as they became trapped in a siege within a siege.
Our teams throughout the Strip quickly adapted our response as front lines moved or evacuation orders were issued. However, even health care facilities were not spared, as Israeli forces attacked and targeted hospitals, killing personnel. Six of our colleagues were killed in Gaza in 2025, bringing the total number to 15 since October 2023. We deeply mourn their loss.
Despite the ceasefire announced on October 11, 2025, Israel continues to kill people, target civilian infrastructure, and impede the entry of aid into Gaza.
The West Bank
In the West Bank, violence and the erasure of Palestinians from their land — described as ethnic cleansing — intensified as Israel expanded settlements, destroying refugee camps and homes. Thousands of people were forcibly displaced and prevented from seeking medical care, including much-needed psychological support to cope with the extreme hardship of their daily lives.
On December 30, Israel informed 37 NGOs, including MSF, that their registration to work in Palestine had expired. The Israeli authorities accused us of not cooperating with them on registration, even though the new procedures would endanger our staff and despite our attempts to engage with them, unsuccessfully, for many months. At the end of the year, Israel instigated a smear campaign against aid organizations, with MSF as the main target, in an attempt to arbitrarily restrict access to aid for Palestinians and to remove independent witnesses working on the ground.
The war on Gaza has had repercussions across the wider Middle East, with growing instability in Yemen and Israel continuing to bomb southern Lebanon despite a ceasefire implemented in November 2024.
Responding to the lasting traumas of conflict
Ukraine
The war in Ukraine showed no sign of abating in 2025. Russian drone attacks and bombing increased, targeting civilian buildings and energy infrastructure, leaving people exposed to freezing temperatures during the winter months. With no ceasefire in sight, we continue to address people’s ongoing physical and psychological trauma while constantly adapting to shifting front lines.
Syria
Since the fall of the Assad regime in Syria in 2024, MSF has been able to return to areas of the country that had been inaccessible for a decade. Our teams are helping to restore health services and respond to the urgent needs of people still affected by sporadic fighting.
Neglected crises
South Sudan
The situation in South Sudan sharply deteriorated during the year as conflict in the country resumed. As global attention and funding shifted elsewhere, people have been left behind in crisis. Communities endured displacement, flooding, malnutrition, and multiple disease outbreaks, including the largest cholera epidemic in the country’s history.
The decline in international assistance has stretched South Sudan’s health system to the breaking point, with chronic shortages of medicines and staff. To make matters worse, health facilities and personnel have been targeted in the conflict. In 2025, we experienced nine attacks on our facilities and staff in Central Equatoria, Jonglei, and Upper Nile states. Ulang and Old Fangak hospitals were forced to close, and staff in our facilities in Pieri and Lankien, Jonglei state, had to evacuate following airstrikes.
Haiti
In Port-au-Prince, Haiti’s capital, anarchy continues to reign, four years after President Moïse’s assassination. People are subjected to appalling violence by gangs and the police, and are too afraid to leave their homes to seek health care. Sexual violence is being used systematically to terrorize women and girls; the number of victims and survivors treated at our Pran Men’m Clinic almost tripled between 2021 and 2025.
We maintained activities where possible, despite a deliberate attack on a convoy of our ambulances and intense fighting near our facilities, but we were forced to suspend work in Turgeau in March and Carrefour in April. In October, we made the difficult decision to permanently close Turgeau due to insecurity, further reducing people’s access to health care.
DR Congo
The long-running conflict in northeastern DRC continued in 2025, causing repeated waves of displacement and a dramatic rise in basic needs, as the M23 armed group rapidly advanced through North Kivu and South Kivu provinces.
Sadly, MSF staff were not immune to the violence; in the space of four months, three of our colleagues were shot dead in North Kivu. Peace agreements have had little or no effect, and the fighting goes on.
Myanmar and Bangladesh
In Myanmar, another country far from the international spotlight, fighting persisted in several areas, including in Rakhine state. In December, dozens of people were killed when a busy hospital was bombed in Rakhine. In March, a powerful 7.7 magnitude earthquake struck the center of the country, killing over 5,000 people and injuring and displacing thousands more. Our teams responded by providing medical and mental health care, as well as water and sanitation needs.
The campaign of violence against the Rohingya continued in Myanmar. Those still living there face severe restrictions on their movement and struggle to obtain even basic health care. For the 1 million Rohingya who live in the refugee camps of Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh, cuts to aid funding are exacerbating the inhumane living conditions.
Assisting people on the move
Central America
By the end of 2025, we had downsized or wound up most of our migration-related projects in Mexico and Central America, including those in Panama, Guatemala, and Honduras. Changes in migration policies in the US, and in some Central American countries, resulted in a significant decrease in people heading north during the year.
Europe
In Europe, our teams continued to work with migrants and asylum seekers in Greece, Italy, France, Belgium, Serbia, and Poland. We spoke out about inhumane migration policies implemented by some of these countries and by the European Union. In Poland, we urged the authorities to uphold the right for people to seek asylum on Polish territory, while in France, we called for recognition and protection for minors.
Libya
Our work in Libya was suspended by authorities, alongside other organizations working on migration, leaving hundreds of migrants forgotten in the hands of traffickers.
Search and rescue
In November, we resumed our search and rescue operations in the Central Mediterranean Sea, the world’s most dangerous migration route, with a new, faster boat, the Oyvon. Our teams also worked in Senegal and Mauritania to assist people on the move on the perilous West Africa/Atlantic route, as they headed for the Canary Islands.
Responding to natural hazards
During the year, we also assisted people affected by natural hazards. In November and December, we worked in Jamaica for the first time, in response to the devastation caused by Hurricane Melissa. MSF provided emergency medical care, rehabilitated damaged health facilities, and restored water, sanitation, and hygiene services across the battered island. After assessing the situation in Cuba, we donated essential drugs.
In October, we provided emergency medical and logistical assistance after Hurricane Priscilla hit Mexico. In Sri Lanka, we worked to restore basic health care, water, and sanitation after Cyclone Ditwah caused widespread flooding and landslides in November.
Tackling diseases
Cholera
For the third year running, we responded to large-scale outbreaks of cholera, a deadly yet entirely preventable disease that once again claimed thousands of lives across the world. Our teams worked to curb epidemics in DRC, South Sudan, Sudan, Yemen, Mozambique, Tanzania, and across the Sahel. In many of these places, outbreaks were exacerbated by conflict and displacement.
Tuberculosis
Significant progress was made in the treatment of pediatric tuberculosis (TB) in 2025. MSF’s Test, Avoid, Cure Tuberculosis in Children (TACTiC) project aims to reduce the high death rate of children with TB. The project released data from its operational research toward the end of the year, which demonstrated that implementing the World Health Organization’s recommended treatment decision algorithms improves diagnosis and enables nearly twice as many children to start lifesaving treatment. However, these efforts are being compromised by funding cuts to diagnostics and treatment.
We are extremely grateful to our 7.5 million donors, who make our work possible, and to our nearly 66,000 staff, who remain committed to delivering care and assistance wherever it is needed, despite ongoing threats to humanitarian activities across the world.
