News & Stories

Being vaccinated against potentially fatal diseases like diphtheria, measles, whooping cough, meningitis, pneumonia, yellow fever, and others is a rite of passage for many children the world over. But in northern Mali’s vast desert region of Kidal, where insecurity, isolation, and limited health infrastructure hinder access to care for many communities, protecting children from these illnesses can be difficult.

The attackers wore masks and used axes, machetes, and guns to slaughter civilians in the strife-torn Ituri province of Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), says Areiti, a mother of seven children. 

The morning the violence came to her village of Joo, she had no time to prepare her family’s escape. “I saw how they were killing people,” the 37-year-old says. “They cut people with axes and they slaughter with machetes. You cannot see them clearly because they are running after you. They attacked our village before Christmas, and we spent Christmas in the bush.”

In the early hours of August 25, 2017, the Myanmar military launched “clearance operations” in Rakhine state, ostensibly in response to coordinated attacks by Rohingya armed groups on Border Guard Police outposts.

Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) project coordinator Arunn Jegan is currently working in Yemen, where years of grinding conflict have had a devastating effect on the nation’s health system. Here, he describes the situation in Taiz, a city in southwestern Yemen that has been convulsed by fighting between various armed groups since 2015.