A Year in Pictures: Explore 65 Powerful Moments From 2023-2024

Latest News9 December 2024

Over the past 12 months, Doctors Without Borders (MSF) teams have witnessed the continuation and escalation of conflicts, such as those in Gaza and Sudan, where unabated wars have raged into a second year. A Year in Pictures captures these moments through 65 photos taken between December 2023 and December 2024, showcasing the highs and lows we – and those we assist – experience as we provide medical and humanitarian assistance in over 70 countries. Our teams were also there for people and families seeking safety throughout the year, whether at the Mexico border or onboard our search and rescue ship in the Mediterranean Sea.

This collection also shows the breaking points – such as when we had to suspend activities in Haiti’s capital – as well as resilience and joy, such as when we witnessed a mother meeting her baby for the first time in South Sudan. These photos show how bearing witness can create a point of connection.

Medical care provides relief in the most difficult of circumstances, and we remain inspired by our staff’s commitment to deliver this care to people, even as the obstacles to doing so increase around us.

MSF, Doctors Without Borders, A year in Pictures 2024 — View of hilly landscapes in Minova health zone, South Kivu province, eastern Democratic of Congo.

This pictures captures the harrowing moment an overcrowded boat capsized last night. Luckily, the MSF team managed to retrieve all 45 people safely from the water.

Eric, 25, arrived yesterday from Minova. Determined to protect his familyand concerned about the state of his parents' health, he immediately set about building a tent for them. He has already managed to erect the structure using the wood he brought back from Virunga Park. Tomorrow he will be looking for a waterproof tarpaulin to complete the shelter.

Pregnant Sudanese women visit a midwife at her home for a prenatal consultation, in the spontaneaous site for refugees in Adré, Ouaddaï region, Chad. Feb 3, 2024.

View of the Delmas 18 area, after fighting between armed groups and police forces.

Dooshima was given a whistle at the MSF star clinic. This object is given to protect all the survivors who are living in a situation that is particularly vulnerable to sexual abuse. Mbawa IDP camp, Benue, North Central Nigeria, December 2023.

A teenager drawing on the wall at MSF’s mental health clinic at Al-Hol camp, northeast Syria.

Omar stands in the rubble of his home after it was bulldozed by Israeli forces in Jenin refugee camp, West Bank, Palestine.

The fire started one hour after midnight, on January 7. It took three hours to stop it, and during that time the fire destroyed nearly 900 shelters.

A nurse walks through the room where patients received the diphtheria antitoxin (DAT) while a patient is reflected in the glass door as she talks to visitors at the Centre de Traitement Epidemiologique in Siguiri, Guinea. Visitors are welcome in a limited capacity, having to stand behind a fence to create a two-meter-wide barrier to prevent the spread of diphtheria. MSF has helped treat over 2100 patients as of Jan. 4, 2024, and has been responding to a diphtheria outbreak in the region since mid-August, the likes of which has not been seen in the country for the last 30 years.

South Gaza. Streets of Rafah absolutely full of people building shelters.

Gisele Dorika, 18, from Rugari in Rutshuru territory, in the labour ward before giving birth at the MSF-supported Kanyaruchinya health centre, north of Goma, North Kivu, Democratic Republic of Congo, 5 January.

The MSF construction team walk on the roof of a new building under construction in the Khost Maternity Hospital compound.

Palestine, Khan Younis, south Gaza, April 23, 2024. Photograph taken inside Nasser Hospital, after a siege by the Israeli forces. At the end of January, the Israeli forces issued evacuation orders for the entire area and surrounded the hospital, which found itself at the centre of intense fighting for several weeks.

Road between Abyei Town and Agok, Abyei Special Administrative Area. The 38-kilometer trip from Agok to Abyei takes over 6 hours due to poor roads. MSF uses a tractor to navigate mud bogs. The road conditions prevent water and sanitation trucks from reaching Abyei.

Christopher Lockyear, secretary general of MSF, holds up an image of the destroyed MSF shelter in Al-Mawasi in Khan Younis, Gaza. An MSF staff member’s wife and daughter-in-law were killed and six other people were injured when an Israeli tank fired on a clearly marked MSF staff shelter on February 20, 2024. Lockyear called on the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) to demand an immediate and sustained ceasefire in Gaza. Addressing the Council at its monthly meeting on Gaza, Lockyear also called for the unequivocal protection of medical facilities, staff, and patients.

Life on Deck.

Ndoungamandji Solange, Aide nurse is examining a patient in Massakori, Chad.

People working in a rice mill located at the entrance to Makurdi town, capital of Benue State, are sifting rice and separating grains. Because of the importance of agriculture in the state, Benue is known as the food basket of Nigeria. Makurdi, Benue, North Central Nigeria, December 2023.

Aerial view of the migrant camp at the edge of the Rio Bravo that separates Matamoros, Tamaulipas, from Brownsville, Texas.

Shahid Khan helps his son Abdul Rehman with his homework inside their home in Machar Colony. Shahid Khan has successfully completed his hepatitis C treatment, Karachi, Pakistan.

South Sudan is in the middle of malaria season. The majority of patients at Mayen Abun Hospital are positive for malaria, some of them suffering from severe cases. In the photo, a medical staff member places a fan in one of the tents to relieve inpatients from the high temperatures in Mayen Abun.

Displaced Palestinians in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip carry their belongings as they leave following an evacuation order by the Israeli army on May 6, 2024.

Mohammed was displaced from Al-Hasahisa camp as fighting started between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in the camp. Mohammed and his family endured months of bombings and lack of water, that was blocked from entering the camp. Eventually, together with his family he fled his home in the camp and came to the University of Zalingei.

Ita Joice, 27 years old, meets her baby girl, Juan, during her caesarean section in Mundari County Hospital, the only secondary healthcare facility in Kajo Keji, Central Equatoria.

Al Shifa medical complex After 14 days of siege by the Israeli forces.

Adre border crossing point between Chad and Sudan. 600,000 people already fled the war in Sudan to seek refuge in Chad since April 2023 and there are new arrivals on a daily basis

The team of midwives of the MSF-supported maternity in Mokha, decided to end their shift by watching the sunset on the Red Sea. “There are so many challenges for mothers in Yemen, and most of them are linked to the war, making access to the few left health centres too complicated” says Altaf, a 28-year-old midwife at the Mokha maternity. Yemen, November 2024.

Mr Yurii has been in hospital for a month and a half, following a mine-blast injury that resulted in amputation in Ukraine."I was in trauma for a month, trying to save my leg, but the infection was severe. Initially, I was very worried, but I accepted it. They showed me how to train and the types of prostheses available, and I realised I could walk again. Now I’m actively working with MSF psychologists and physical therapists.

On 8 June 2024, after instructions from the Italian authorities, the 11 bodies which were recovered from the Mediterranean Sea the day before, were transferred by the Geo Barents team to an Italian Coast Guard vessel near Lampadusa.

A small bowl of waterlily (dry roots) is placed on the floor. Harvested by a member of the amily, this is the main meal for the household. In the back, Nyangkury Deng Jal, 56 years old, suffering from TB/HIV, is sitting on the floor of the shelter she built by herself next to her grand-child. Leer, Unity State, South Sudan. May 2024

The return of the displaced to Khan Yunis and another from Rafah, during the end of last April and during the beginning of this month.

Hin So, MSF midwife activity manager checking on a newborn baby at Nasser Hospital, southern Gaza.

MSF’s Munira Gulomova conducts a mental health consultation with Akmal Uganov, 25, at his home in the city of Tursunzoda, Tajikistan.

Open-air cinema organized by MSF staff for patients at Adre hospital.

MSF van crossing a wooden bridge, a short distance away from a primary healthcare facility MSF is supporting in Cross River state. The wooden bridge was constructed after the concrete bridge collapsed. It is now old too, so, MSF van must cross without passengers to reduce weight. An MSF logistician guides the van as it drives across the wooden bridge.

The US Mexico border wall ends, and a chest-high fence continues to mark the US-Mexico border. This place, 18 miles East of Sasabe, Arizona, is used as a crossing point into the US by migrants and asylum seekers. The End of the Wall camp is located right across from this gap.

In the operating theatre of the Salama clinic in Bunia, a team of surgeons and anaesthetists from the Ministry of Health and MSF work together to treat trauma patients. In their first year of operation, the teams performed 2,050 operations at the Bunia surgery centre, Ituri, 2 June 2024.

Following the explosion of a fuel tanker in Mirogôane on 14 September, many injured people were treated at various MSF facilities. Six patients are currently being treated at the MSF trauma hospital in Carrefour. MSF teams are working hard to provide them with the necessary care. One of them, Ke

In Ikongo district, located in the south-eastern region of Madagascar, access to healthcare and the delivery of humanitarian aid is particularly difficult due to road difficulties and the high frequency of natural disasters affecting the island. To reach health centers, it is often necessary to cross rivers or walk several kilometers.

Syrian refugee Kazem, 20, left, and his sister Marimar, 14, hold their kittens in a parking lot in the city of Saida, south of Lebanon, Wednesday, October 16, 2024, where Syrian refugees, who lived in the south of Lebanon, have found refuge after the Israeli escalation on Lebanon.

A caravan of migrants escorted by police officers advances along the route between the towns of La Venta and Juchitán, in southern Mexico.

Margarita Rojas Mena, in Mojaudó, Colombia stitched up the photograph of the community school, wounded by bullets from an armed confrontation.

The patient has broken ribs, which makes it difficult for him to breathe, and burns on his legs and hands. Ihor remembers that he was blown up by a mine. It is difficult to remember the events of that day.

Karam, 17, from Nuseirat Camp in central Gaza, during a physiotherapy session at MSFs Reconstructive Surgery Hospital in Amman, Jordan. Karam nearly died after an Israeli airstrike levelled his family's house. He suffered severe burns to his face and other areas of his body and also suffered a serious injury to his arm. He is receiving comprehensive reconstructive surgery and physiotherapy at the MSF hospital in Amman.

ihana, a 28-year-old patient participating in the endTB-Q clinical trial, sits for an audiometric examination in a soundproof booth to verify her hearing capacity during a routine consultation at the endTB clinic run by Interactive Research & Development (IRD) in Kotri, Pakistan. The trial aims to test a short treatment for a very hard-to-treat form of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis -an airborne infectious disease that has grown resistant to standard medications: pre-extensively drug-resistant TB (pre-XDR-TB).

A mother and child inside the therapeutic feeding center for malnourished children at the MSF Hospital in Metche, in eastern Chad, August 7, 2024. Metche camp hosts about 40,000 Sudanese refugees who have fled violence in Darfur. Finbarr O’Reilly/VII Photo.

MSF, Doctors Without Borders, A year in Pictures, Sudan — A rickshaw taxi goes around a destroyed tank belonging to the Sudanese Armed Forces, a remnant of the violent clashes that took place in El Geneina in 2023. West Darfur, Sudan. February 20, 2024.

Aisha (14), from Yemen working on a handcraft artwork in a workshop at the MSF hospital art school. During her latest treatment visit to the hospital, between April-May 2024, Aisha learnt how to make use of her prostethics to gain independence, through occupational therapy sessions. MSF hospital, Amman, Joran. April 2024.

Nyala Teaching Hospital, Destruction.

Health promoter Aisha B. (28) accompanies 80 years old Aisha G. to the MSF clinic in Adré transit camp, eastern Chad.

Maryam gets a supply of supplementary feeding product as she stays in the intensive care ward of MSF’s inpatient nutrition hospital in Maiduguri with her mother Maryam.

A man standing on a canoe near the town of Old Fangak.The Sudd region is one of the world's largest wetlands. Its inhabitants have adapted their lives to the natural ebb and flow of seasonal floods, which depend on rainfall patterns and water levels in upstream Lake Victoria, Uganda.

Teresa Arteaga, with Lorena Rodriguez, MSF health promotion supervisor, participate in the release of Wolbachia-carrying mosquitoes in the community of Canaan.

Halitare Abdi Sene a refugee at Dagahaley camp rolls down a water jerrycan alongside her two sons after fetching it from an MSF water point in the outskirts of Dagahaley camp.

Ezdihar al Diqa, 39, and her daughter Nouraya, 14, in the room they have been sharing since September 29 with 14 other people in the Azariye camp for displaced persons in the center of the Lebanese capital. Ezdihar, who lives in Dahieh, left the southern suburbs of Beirut with her husband and two children on the evening of September 28, after receiving a bombing alert targeting their neighborhood.

MSF member of our Women's Health programmes examines a pregnant woman in order diagnose and treat malaria,

The main focus of MSF's work in the Auaris region's communities is to reduce malaria infections. The disease is endemic across the Amazon region, where the Yanomami Indigenous Territory is located. With this aim, our teams carry out activities to diagnose and treat malaria, as well as to raise awareness about the disease and prevent it.

A Year in Pictures: Explore 65 Powerful Moments From 2023-2024

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This pictures captures the harrowing moment an overcrowded boat capsized last night. Luckily, the MSF team managed to retrieve all 45 people safely from the water.

Pregnant Sudanese women visit a midwife at her home for a prenatal consultation, in the spontaneaous site for refugees in Adré, Ouaddaï region, Chad. Feb 3, 2024.

View of the Delmas 18 area, after fighting between armed groups and police forces.

Dooshima was given a whistle at the MSF star clinic. This object is given to protect all the survivors who are living in a situation that is particularly vulnerable to sexual abuse. Mbawa IDP camp, Benue, North Central Nigeria, December 2023.

A teenager drawing on the wall at MSF’s mental health clinic at Al-Hol camp, northeast Syria.

Omar stands in the rubble of his home after it was bulldozed by Israeli forces in Jenin refugee camp, West Bank, Palestine.

The fire started one hour after midnight, on January 7. It took three hours to stop it, and during that time the fire destroyed nearly 900 shelters.

South Gaza. Streets of Rafah absolutely full of people building shelters.

Gisele Dorika, 18, from Rugari in Rutshuru territory, in the labour ward before giving birth at the MSF-supported Kanyaruchinya health centre, north of Goma, North Kivu, Democratic Republic of Congo, 5 January.

The MSF construction team walk on the roof of a new building under construction in the Khost Maternity Hospital compound.

Road between Abyei Town and Agok, Abyei Special Administrative Area. The 38-kilometer trip from Agok to Abyei takes over 6 hours due to poor roads. MSF uses a tractor to navigate mud bogs. The road conditions prevent water and sanitation trucks from reaching Abyei.

Life on Deck.

Ndoungamandji Solange, Aide nurse is examining a patient in Massakori, Chad.

People working in a rice mill located at the entrance to Makurdi town, capital of Benue State, are sifting rice and separating grains. Because of the importance of agriculture in the state, Benue is known as the food basket of Nigeria. Makurdi, Benue, North Central Nigeria, December 2023.

Aerial view of the migrant camp at the edge of the Rio Bravo that separates Matamoros, Tamaulipas, from Brownsville, Texas.

Shahid Khan helps his son Abdul Rehman with his homework inside their home in Machar Colony. Shahid Khan has successfully completed his hepatitis C treatment, Karachi, Pakistan.

South Sudan is in the middle of malaria season. The majority of patients at Mayen Abun Hospital are positive for malaria, some of them suffering from severe cases. In the photo, a medical staff member places a fan in one of the tents to relieve inpatients from the high temperatures in Mayen Abun.

Displaced Palestinians in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip carry their belongings as they leave following an evacuation order by the Israeli army on May 6, 2024.

Ita Joice, 27 years old, meets her baby girl, Juan, during her caesarean section in Mundari County Hospital, the only secondary healthcare facility in Kajo Keji, Central Equatoria.

Al Shifa medical complex After 14 days of siege by the Israeli forces.

Adre border crossing point between Chad and Sudan. 600,000 people already fled the war in Sudan to seek refuge in Chad since April 2023 and there are new arrivals on a daily basis

On 8 June 2024, after instructions from the Italian authorities, the 11 bodies which were recovered from the Mediterranean Sea the day before, were transferred by the Geo Barents team to an Italian Coast Guard vessel near Lampadusa.

The return of the displaced to Khan Yunis and another from Rafah, during the end of last April and during the beginning of this month.

Hin So, MSF midwife activity manager checking on a newborn baby at Nasser Hospital, southern Gaza.

MSF’s Munira Gulomova conducts a mental health consultation with Akmal Uganov, 25, at his home in the city of Tursunzoda, Tajikistan.

Open-air cinema organized by MSF staff for patients at Adre hospital.

The US Mexico border wall ends, and a chest-high fence continues to mark the US-Mexico border. This place, 18 miles East of Sasabe, Arizona, is used as a crossing point into the US by migrants and asylum seekers. The End of the Wall camp is located right across from this gap.

In the operating theatre of the Salama clinic in Bunia, a team of surgeons and anaesthetists from the Ministry of Health and MSF work together to treat trauma patients. In their first year of operation, the teams performed 2,050 operations at the Bunia surgery centre, Ituri, 2 June 2024.

Following the explosion of a fuel tanker in Mirogôane on 14 September, many injured people were treated at various MSF facilities. Six patients are currently being treated at the MSF trauma hospital in Carrefour. MSF teams are working hard to provide them with the necessary care. One of them, Ke

Syrian refugee Kazem, 20, left, and his sister Marimar, 14, hold their kittens in a parking lot in the city of Saida, south of Lebanon, Wednesday, October 16, 2024, where Syrian refugees, who lived in the south of Lebanon, have found refuge after the Israeli escalation on Lebanon.

A caravan of migrants escorted by police officers advances along the route between the towns of La Venta and Juchitán, in southern Mexico.

Margarita Rojas Mena, in Mojaudó, Colombia stitched up the photograph of the community school, wounded by bullets from an armed confrontation.

The patient has broken ribs, which makes it difficult for him to breathe, and burns on his legs and hands. Ihor remembers that he was blown up by a mine. It is difficult to remember the events of that day.

A mother and child inside the therapeutic feeding center for malnourished children at the MSF Hospital in Metche, in eastern Chad, August 7, 2024. Metche camp hosts about 40,000 Sudanese refugees who have fled violence in Darfur. Finbarr O’Reilly/VII Photo.

Nyala Teaching Hospital, Destruction.

Health promoter Aisha B. (28) accompanies 80 years old Aisha G. to the MSF clinic in Adré transit camp, eastern Chad.

Maryam gets a supply of supplementary feeding product as she stays in the intensive care ward of MSF’s inpatient nutrition hospital in Maiduguri with her mother Maryam.

A man standing on a canoe near the town of Old Fangak.The Sudd region is one of the world's largest wetlands. Its inhabitants have adapted their lives to the natural ebb and flow of seasonal floods, which depend on rainfall patterns and water levels in upstream Lake Victoria, Uganda.

Teresa Arteaga, with Lorena Rodriguez, MSF health promotion supervisor, participate in the release of Wolbachia-carrying mosquitoes in the community of Canaan.

Halitare Abdi Sene a refugee at Dagahaley camp rolls down a water jerrycan alongside her two sons after fetching it from an MSF water point in the outskirts of Dagahaley camp.

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