1971

Médecins Sans Frontières is Founded

A group of French doctors and journalists creates MSF in the wake of the war and accompanying famine in Biafra, Nigeria, and the floods in eastern Pakistan (now Bangladesh).

1975

Cambodians Flee Khmer Rouge

MSF establishes in its first large-scale medical program during a refugee crisis, providing medical care for waves of Cambodians seeking sanctuary from Pol Pot’s rule.

1976

War in Lebanon

MSF conducts surgery in the organization’s first major response in a war zone.

1979

Competing Visions Lead to a Split at MSF

Led by Dr. Claude Malhuret and Dr. Francis Charhon, MSF moves beyond its modus operandi of sending isolated doctors to crisis zones in favor of creating a more structured organization that can provide quality medical services in crises. Co-founder Dr. Bernard Kouchner leaves in protest and later founds Médecins du Monde/Doctors of the World.

1980

War in Afghanistan

After the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in the final days of 1979, triggering a war that would last a decade, MSF medical teams clandestinely cross the Pakistani–Afghan border and travel by mule for several weeks to reach injured civilians living in remote areas.

1980

New Offices

MSF offices open in Belgium and Switzerland.

1984

Famine in Ethiopia

MSF starts programs to treat malnutrition in hunger-stricken regions of the country.

1984

MSF Holland Opens

A new MSF office is established in Amsterdam.

1985

Ethiopian Government Expels MSF

MSF is ordered to halt its activities after speaking out against the government’s misuse of aid to forcibly relocate millions of its people, resulting in tens of thousands of deaths.

1985

Conflict in Central America

MSF provides medical care in Honduras to refugees fleeing armed conflicts in El Salvador and Nicaragua.

1986

Civil War in Sri Lanka

MSF organizes mobile clinics and hospital programs to treat citizens injured and traumatized in the fight between the government and the Tamil Tigers.

1986

MSF Expands

MSF opens offices in Luxembourg and Spain.

1988

Earthquake in Armenia

MSF provides medical care in the Soviet Union for the first time.

1989

MSF Opens First Mental Health Programs

MSF brings mental health support to survivors of the Armenian earthquake and the following year starts mental health programs for people in the Palestinian Territories.

1989

Soviet Bloc Falls

MSF begins programs in response to deteriorating health systems across what had been the Soviet Union.

1990

MSF-USA is Created

MSF opens an office in New York City, its first outside Europe. A year later, offices open in Canada and Italy as well, and the International Office is formed, based in Geneva.

1990

Civil War in Liberia

MSF provides emergency care at the height of the fighting.

1991

Civil War in Somalia

MSF runs surgical programs in war-stricken Mogadishu and aids refugees in neighboring countries.

1991

Kurdish Refugees Flee Northern Iraq

In its largest emergency response to date, MSF provides care in Turkey, Iran, and Jordan to Kurds driven from their homes by the advancing Iraqi army.

1991

War in Bosnia

MSF runs medical and mental health programs in the region and provides assistance in the UN’s supposed “protected zones” of Gorazde and Srebrenica.

1992

Famine in Somalia

MSF alerts the international community to widespread famine and opens programs to treat malnourished children and adults.

1992

Civil War in Afghanistan

As a vicious civil war takes hold in the country and the capital, MSF continues working in Afghanistan, constantly negotiating with the fighting parties to move material into the country and to get access to those in need of medical care.

1993

Civil War in Burundi

MSF aids civilians in Burundi and refugees in Tanzania and Rwanda.

1994

Genocide in Rwanda

MSF remains in the capital, Kigali, throughout the genocide of more than 800,000 Tutsis and “moderate” Hutus by Hutu extremists, and makes the unprecedented decision to call for international military intervention.

1994

Crisis in Goma, Zaire (now Democratic Republic of Congo)

MSF withdraws its staff from refugee camps in Zaire and Tanzania, and denounces the hijacking of humanitarian aid by the perpetrators of the genocide who are controlling the camps.

1995

Srebrenica Massacre

1995

War in Chechnya

1996

MSF Movement Grows

1996

Meningitis Epidemic in Nigeria

1996

Rwandan Refugees Seek Aid

1997

Street Children Neglected in Madagascar, Brazil, and the Philippines

MSF expands its medical and social programs in several countries to include marginalized youth.

1998

Famine in North Korea

Unable to ensure that medical aid is reaching those most at risk of malnutrition, MSF is forced to pull out of North Korea after three years, but continues to assist North Korean refugees who have fled to China.

1998

Famine in Southern Sudan

MSF responds to widespread famine caused by civil war and drought in Bahr-el-Ghazal province.

1998

Hurricane Mitch

MSF assists victims in Honduras, Nicaragua, Guatemala, and El Salvador.

1998

Civil War in Republic of Congo (Brazzaville)

After encountering numerous victims of sexual violence, MSF changes its emergency response protocols to integrate treatment for victims of rape and sexual assault.

1999

MSF Launches Access to Essential Medicines Campaign

With millions of people dying every year from treatable infectious diseases, MSF starts an international effort to push for increased access to medicines for the world’s poor.

1999

MSF Awarded Nobel Peace Prize

MSF is honored for its “pioneering humanitarian work on several continents.”

1999

Crisis in Kosovo

MSF provides medical care to displaced civilians in Kosovo and in refugee camps in Albania, Macedonia, and Montenegro, as well as to civilians in Serbia.

1999

Second War in Chechnya

MSF calls on Russian forces to grant humanitarian organizations access to the city of Grozny and denounces the aerial bombardment of civilians by the Russian Air Force.

2000

Civil War in Sierra Leone

MSF treats victims of the country’s brutal civil war.

2000

Aid to Asylum Seekers In Europe

MSF expands its programs assisting asylum seekers and undocumented immigrants in Belgium, France, Italy, and Spain.

2000

The HIV/AIDS Pandemic

MSF starts providing antiretroviral therapy to people living with HIV/AIDS in Thailand, and the following year opens projects in Cambodia, Cameroon, Guatemala, Kenya, Malawi, and South Africa, primarily using generic antiretroviral medicines.

2001

Trauma Counseling in Colombia, Sierra Leone, Sri Lanka, and Beyond

MSF increasingly includes mental health activities in its emergency responses around the world.

2001

US-Led Coalition Invades Afghanistan

Following 9/11, MSF briefly evacuates many members of its international staff from Taliban-held areas, relying on Afghan staff to keep medical programs running in the initial phases of the US-led invasion. By November, however, international staff returns and programs continue.

2002

Famine in Angola

After the UNITA rebel army collapses and a 28-year civil war comes to an end, MSF treats thousands of malnourished children in areas previously inaccessible to humanitarian aid. MSF denounces the UN for prioritizing a political settlement for post-conflict Angola over the distribution of much-needed humanitarian assistance.

2002

Aid Workers Under Attack

MSF’s Arjan Erkel is abducted in the Russian Republic of Dagestan in the North Caucasus, the most recent victim of increasing dangers faced by aid workers in conflict zones worldwide. It will be 20 months before he is released.

2002

Malaria Killing Millions in Africa

As malaria in several countries shows increased resistance to common antimalarials like chloroquine, MSF increases its use of artemisinin-based combination therapy and pushes for wider availability of the treatment.

2003

US Invades Iraq

MSF remains in Baghdad during the initial invasion, providing support to hospitals and clinics in selected cities. Later, MSF challenges the US government both for co-opting some aid agencies into the war effort and also for failing to uphold its responsibilities as an occupying power, as mandated by international humanitarian law, to provide adequate medical assistance to civilians.

2003

Heavy Fighting in the Liberian Capital

During fierce fighting between government and rebel troops in Monrovia, MSF assists thousands of displaced people and creates makeshift emergency hospitals at the MSF residences.

2003

Civilians Suffer in Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)

MSF continues to operate and expand a host of medical programs designed to provide emergency medical care for people caught in a conflict that has claimed millions of lives but still remains practically invisible to the outside world.

2003

Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative (DNDi) Created

MSF is a founding partner in a new non-profit organization dedicated to developing medicines for neglected diseases such as Chagas, kala azar, and sleeping sickness, and to challenging the existing profit-driven structure for research and development.

2004

Emergency in Darfur, Sudan

MSF starts nutritional programs, water-and-sanitation programs, clinics, and vaccination campaigns in western Sudan and Chad, where hundreds of thousands of people have fled violence targeted against them, in what is to become in 2005 and 2006 one of the largest emergency responses in MSF’s history.

2004

Five MSF Aid Workers Murdered in Afghanistan

Fasil Ahmad, Besmillah, Hélène de Bier, Pim Kwint, and Egil Tynaes are assassinated in Badghis Province. MSF leaves Afghanistan, after providing assistance for 20 years.

2004

MSF Leaves Iraq

With humanitarian aid workers increasingly under attack, MSF decides that the level of risk to its staff is unacceptable and makes the difficult decision to close its medical programs.

2004

Tsunami Hits South Asia

MSF receives $133 million from the public and asks people to stop making donations for the crisis, having received more funding than needed for its medical programs in the region. MSF also asks donors to "derestrict" donations so they can be used for other emergencies; the vast majority agrees.

2005

Nutritional Crisis in Niger

Drawing on derestricted funds that came in following the tsunami, MSF responds to an overlooked and neglected malnutrition crisis in Niger, treating 63,000 severely malnourished children on an outpatient basis with a new therapeutic ready-to-use-food, the first time it has used this treatment protocol on such a massive scale. MSF subsequently revises its guidelines for treating malnutrition to include this innovative approach.

2005

Civilians Under Fire in Haiti's Capital

MSF provides surgical, primary, and mental health care to people caught in the violence gripping Port-au-Prince, treating thousands of gunshot, machete, and knife wounds, and calls for all armed groups to respect the safety of civilians.

2005

Devastating Earthquake Hits South Asia

MSF runs mobile clinics to reach people trapped in remote villages and sets up inflatable surgical tents to treat thousands of people injured in the massive earthquake that hit the Kashmir region of Pakistan and India.

2006

Surgical Care for Victims of War in Iraq

Unable to work safely in Iraq, MSF sets up a reconstructive surgical program in Amman, Jordan to treat severely war-wounded patients referred by medical colleagues in Iraq.

2006

Massive Cholera Outbreak in Angola

MSF treats 26,000 people and sends more than 400 tons of supplies to respond to a cholera outbreak that spreads from the capital to more than half the country.

2006

Sri Lanka Returns to War

As tens of thousands of people flee renewed fighting in the north of the country, MSF reopens surgical programs in north and central Sri Lanka after facing a series of setbacks from the authorities.

2007

A New Treatment for Malaria

The Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative and the pharmaceutical company sanofi-aventis launch ASAQ, an inexpensive and easy-to-use combination pill. ASAQ is not patented, allowing for others to produce it at lower cost.

2007

Pharmaceutical Companies Attempt to Block Access to Essential Medicines

MSF campaigns against Novartis for its legal challenge to Indian patent law in order to protect the production of low-cost generic medicines. India supplies MSF with 80 percent of the antiretrovirals needed for 100,000 patients worldwide. In August, the Indian courts rule against Novartis.

2007

Conflict Grips Somalia

Hundreds of thousands of civilians flee the capital, Mogadishu, as the worst fighting in 15 years erupts throughout the city. Amid great insecurity, MSF sets up a surgical program in Mogadishu, provides assistance to some of those displaced, and maintains medical programs in the rest of the country.

2007

The Access to Essential Medicines Campaign Takes On Malnutrition

With the proven success of ready-to-use food in treating severely and moderately malnourished children, MSF campaigns for others in the field to scale up their programs and to adopt similar protocols. MSF pushes for food aid and nutritional programs to include ingredients that are appropriate for the most vulnerable children—those between six months and two years of age.

2007

MSF Returns to Iraq

MSF sets up surgical programs in Iraqi Kurdistan to treat wounded civilians unable to receive adequate care in overwhelmed, under-staffed, and under-equipped hospitals in other areas of Iraq and continues to supply hospitals with medicines and equipment.

2007

Crisis Unfolds in Chad

More than 150,000 displaced people attempt to survive in makeshift camps in eastern Chad as fighting escalates between government and rebel groups. MSF scales up its medical programs and calls for a massive international humanitarian response.

2008

Political Unrest in Kenya Displaces Thousands

MSF treats wounded civilians in the shanty towns of the capital, Nairobi, and assists displaced Kenyans in makeshift camps who flee to the west of the country after disputed presidential elections lead to widespread violence.

2008

MSF Aid Workers Killed in Somalia

Mohamed Abdi Ali (Bidhaan), Damian Lehalle, and Victor Okumu are killed when a deliberately-placed roadside bomb hits the MSF vehicle they are traveling in. MSF withdraws all international staff from the country and continues to run reduced programs with Somali staff.

2008

Violence Escalates against Civilians in Democratic Republic of Congo

MSF runs mobile clinics, surgical programs, nutritional programs, and provides treatment and counseling for victims of sexual violence as thousands of Congolese in North Kivu flee increased and repeated attacks on their villages by armed groups.

2008

Cyclone Hits Myanmar

MSF staff already working in the country provides assistance to thousands of people displaced by the cyclone while the government stalls on allowing additional staff to enter the country.

2008

Xenophobic Violence Uproots Tens of Thousands in South Africa

MSF provides medical assistance to thousands of Zimbabweans and other foreign African nationals when angry gangs attack them, killing 62 people and sending 100,000 more in search of safety. MSF speaks out against the inadequate response of both the South African government and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

2008

Nutritional Crisis in Ethiopia

MSF treats more than 72,000 malnourished children as a massive nutritional crisis sweeps the south of the country as a result of drought, poor harvests, and soaring food prices.

2008

Fighting Cholera in Zimbabwe

After an cholera outbreak starts in August, MSF treats more than 65,000 people suffering from the disease over the next 10 months while also supporting government-run facilities with supplies, staff incentive payments, and treatment programs.

2009

Conflict in Gaza

MSF supports hospitals in Gaza following an Israeli offensive launched to counter militants firing crude rockets into Israel. After a ceasefire is announced, MSF opens a surgical hospital and also offers post-operative and psychological care.

2009

Chaos in Pakistan’s Tribal Regions

Amid worsening violence and widespread displacement in Pakistan’s northern provinces, MSF provides emergency care at 12 sites. Security remains a constant concern, however, and some work is suspended after two staff members are killed in the Swat District.

2009

MSF Re-Opens Programs in Afghanistan

Following a five year absence (see 2004), the organization returns to the country and begins supporting hospitals in Kabul and in Lashkargah, the capital of Helmand Province.

2009

A Difficult Year in Sudan

MSF launches emergency interventions in the south in response to escalating violence and outbreaks, while, in Darfur, the government expels two sections and four staff members are kidnapped. Some projects are therefore closed, but MSF nonetheless provides nearly 129,000 consultations and supports numerous local health centers.

2010

Earthquake in Haiti

After a massive earthquake hits Haiti on January 12, MSF launches one of its largest ever interventions, expanding its projects in the country from 3 to a high of 26, treating more than 173,757 patients, and performing more than 11,748 surgeries in the five months that follow.

2010

Flooding Submerges Pakistan

2010

MSF and VII Launch ''Starved For Attention''

2010

Lead Poisoning In Nigeria

2010

Cholera Strikes Haiti

2010

MSF Supports Use of New Meningitis A Vaccine

2011

Treating Victims of Mass Rape in DRC