2025: The year in pictures

In 2025, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) teams continued to respond to some of the world’s most urgent crises. Wars in Gaza and Ukraine dragged on, violence in Sudan escalated, and millions of people were displaced amid growing barriers to migration and shrinking humanitarian support.

These overlapping emergencies left countless communities without the assistance they desperately need, while insecurity and funding gaps across the rest of the humanitarian sector forced us to make difficult decisions about where and how we could operate.

Despite these challenges, our teams remain committed to providing lifesaving medical care wherever it’s needed—whether in conflict zones, along migration routes, or in areas struck by disease outbreaks. This selection of photos captures both breaking points and moments of resilience among the people we assist and our staff: from suspending activities in parts of Haiti due to violence, to witnessing a newborn’s first breath in a maternity ward in Yemen. These images remind us that bearing witness is not only about documenting suffering—it is about creating a human connection.

Gaza

'This is not aid. This is orchestrated killing'

Bassel holds his children as his wife massages his amputated leg to relieve phantom limb pain. The family lives in Al-Mawasi after fleeing their home in Rafah.

Left: Palestinians risk their lives to get aid at a Gaza Humanitarian Foundation distribution site in Netzarim. 2025 © MSF Right: Bassel, who was shot while trying to access aid at a distribution point, holds his children as his wife massages his amputated leg to relieve phantom limb pain. The family lives in Al-Mawasi after fleeing their home in Rafah. 2025 © Motassem Abu Aser/MSF

A crowd gathers to pray outside Nasser Hospital as the body of Abed El Hameed Qaradaya, an MSF physiotherapist who was killed in October, is taken by ambulance to the cemetery. — A crowd gathers to pray as the body of Abed El Hameed Qaradaya, an MSF physiotherapist who was killed in October, is taken by ambulance to the cemetery. | Palestine 2025 © Nour Alsaqqa/MSF

A Palestinian family gathers mallow, a wild plant, in Beit Lahia, northern Gaza. The total siege imposed by Israeli forces in March has left Palestinians in desperate need of food and other necessities.

Ola holds her 8-month-old child, Nour, who is severely malnourished, at MSF's Al-Attar clinic in Khan Younis.

From left: A displaced woman and her great granddaughter search for mallow, a plant that has become a vital source of nutrition amid blockade and starvation; Ola holders her eight-month-old baby, who is severely malnourished, at MSF's Al-Attar primary health care center in Khan Younis. 2025 © Nour Alsaqqa/MSF

Democratic Republic of Congo

People flee the fighting in North and South Kivu arrive at the Kituku Port in Goma. — Clashes this year have led to a new influx of people into displacement camps around Goma, capital of North Kivu province, where conditions are dire. | DR Congo 2025 © Moses Sawasawa

MSF health promotion teams meet people in Kashaka displacement camp, west of Goma, to assess their needs. | DR Congo 2025 © Daniel Buuma

An MSF team examines an X-ray at Kyeshero Hospital in western Goma.

From left: Surgeons at Rutshuru General Reference Hospital cauterize a wound on a young gunshot victim, © Sam Bradpiece/MSF; an MSF team examines an X-ray at Kyeshero Hospital in western Goma, © Michel Lunanga.

A patient stands between tents set up for the treatment of sexual violence survivors and women's health issues at Mugunga 3 Health Center in Goma. | DR Congo 2025 © Jospin Mwisha

MSF teams operate mobile clinics in several remote localities in North Kivu province, where they assess needs and provide support to displaced people who have returned to their villages of origin. | DR Congo 2025 © Daniel Buuma

South Sudan

Aisha Ibrahim accompanies her mother to an MSF-run mobile clinic in Atam, Renk county, for refugees fleeing war in Sudan. | South Sudan 2025 © Paula Casado Aguirregabiria/MSF

An MSF medical team receives an emergency patient who arrived in a donkey-drawn cart. The patient was later transferred by ambulance to Renk. | South Sudan 2025 © Diego Menjíbar

Afghanistan

An MSF team drives up a narrow, winding dirt road in the central highlands of Bamyan province on the way to the MSF-supported health facility in the village of Baghak. The facility provides maternal and child health services, along with routine vaccine administration and outpatient consultations. | Afghanistan 2025 © Logan Turner/MSF

A filing room filled with patient records at the MSF-supported Boost Provincial Hospital in Lashkar Gah, Helmand province. | Afghanistan 2025 © Alexandre Marcou/MSF

Street entrance of the MSF-supported Boost provincial hospital, Afghanistan. — The street entrance of the MSF-supported Boost Provincial Hospital in Lashkar Gah. Each night, patients come from Helmand and neighboring provinces such as Kandahar, Nimroz, or Uruzgan to seek medical care. | Afghanistan 2025 © Alexandre Marcou/MSF

Sakina, an MSF nurse, monitors a baby undergoing phototherapy to treat jaundice. “We see many babies with health complications here," she says. "Prenatal consultations for women are very important to avoid these complications”. | Afghanistan 2025 © Tasal Khogyani/MSF

Sudan and Chad

Refugees play in their makeshift shelter under a tree in Tine transit camp, which has received an influx of refugees from Sudan in recent months due to escalating violence around El Fasher, Sudan. — A refugee resting in a makeshift shelter under a tree in Tine transit camp, which has received an influx of refugees from Sudan in recent months due to escalating violence around El Fasher. | Chad 2025 © Julie David de Lossy/MSF

Two Sudanese boys rest on a rocky hill overlooking the vast sprawl of Aboutengue refugee camp, home to tens of thousands who fled ethnic violence in Sudan's West Darfur region. | Chad 2025 © Moises Saman/Magnum Photos

Refugees line up under a tree for vaccination against cholera at Première Urgence Health Center in Koufroun, eastern Chad, where MSF provides vaccines. | Chad 2025 © Léa Gillabert/MSF

MSF and the World Food Program, through partner organization Acted, organized a soap and food distribution to prevent and control cholera in Adré, eastern Chad. 2025 © Léa Gillabert/MSF

Inside the pediatric ward of the El Geneina Teaching Hospital, children take part in a psychological support session organized by MSF. — Children take part in a psychological support session organized by MSF at El Geneina Teaching Hospital. Balloons and toys offer a rare moment of joy for young patients and displaced families living through the trauma of war. | Sudan 2025 © Moises Saman/Magnum Photos

Meskerem Mulugeta (right), an MSF midwife from Ethiopia, helps deliver a healthy baby at El Geneina Teaching Hospital. With most hospitals destroyed or abandoned and critical shortages of medicines, blood, and personnel, childbirth in Sudan often turns deadly for mothers and infants. | Sudan 2025 © Moises Saman/Magnum Photos

Bangladesh

Anis Mohammad tries to comfort his 4-year-old son, Shofi, as he receives treatment for multiple abscesses in the emergency room at MSF's Kutupalong Hospital. | Bangladesh 2025 © Ante Bussmann/MSF

A new chapter of hope: Breaking the chain of hepatitis C transmission in the Rohingya camps

Left: Shohiedol, a Rohingya refugee who arrived in Bangladesh last year, visits MSF's Jamtoli facility for hepatitis C treatment, 2025 © Farah Tanjee/MSF. Right: Hepatitis C testing in Kutupalong refugee camp, 2025 © Ante Bussmann/MSF.