Our History

Founded in the belief that all people should have access to healthcare regardless of gender, race, religion, creed or political affiliation, MSF teams have cared for tens of millions of people since 1971.

Why we exist

Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) was founded in 1971 in France by a group of doctors and journalists in the wake of war and famine in Biafra (a territory now within Nigeria). Their aim was to establish an independent organisation that focused on delivering emergency medical aid quickly, effectively and impartially. Three hundred volunteers signed up to MSF when it was founded, including medical staff and the 13 founding doctors and journalists.

From the start, our teams made a commitment: they would not only care for patients, but would also commit to bearing witness to their experiences and speaking out about the needs they saw. Today our current staff make the same commitment and continue this legacy of témoignage—speaking out for those in need. 

MSF History

Since 1971, MSF has grown from a group of a few hundred volunteers to an international movement of more than 68,000 staff, providing more than 16 million medical consultations in over 70 countries every year. But the core values of independence, neutrality, and impartiality continue to drive our work.

 

1971: The beginning of MSF

Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) was founded by a group of French doctors and journalists in the wake of the war and accompanying famine in Biafra (a territory now within Nigeria) and the floods in East Pakistan (now Bangladesh). MSF was founded on the belief that all people should have access to healthcare regardless of gender, race, religion, creed or political affiliation.

1972: MSF’s first mission

MSF’s first mission in 1972, was in Managua, Nicaragua's capital, and followed an earthquake which destroyed most of the city and killed between 10,000 and 30,000 people.

1975: First large-scale response to refuge crisis

As Cambodians fled the Khmer Rouge, MSF teams provided medical care for those seeking sanctuary from Pol Pot’s oppressive rule. This response was our first large-scale medical program during a refugee crisis.

1976: First intervention in a war zone

The war in Lebanon marked the first time our teams set up a major intervention in a war zone. From 1976 until 1984, MSF treated people wounded in the civil war in Lebanon.

1980: First international appeal

A first témoignage,or speaking out event, on the international scene was organised with the "March for Survival of Cambodia" a protest against the Vietnamese authorities stopping our teams from bringing aid into Cambodia.

1980: Conflict in Afghanistan

Following the Soviet Union invasion of 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.

1984: The Ethiopian famine

Ongoing drought and food shortages lead to famine in Ethiopia. MSF provided aid to those suffering malnutrition and affected by the ongoing drought and spoke out against the Ethiopian government’s practices of forced resettlement. This stand resulted in some MSF teams being forcibly removed from the country in 1985, but we continued to work with Ethiopian refugees in neighbouring Sudan.

1987

1988: 50,000 dead in Armenia

MSF’s first large-scale intervention was planned by the then six Operational Centres (France, Belgium, Spain, Luxembourg, Holland and Switzerland).

1991: Civil war in Somalia

Hostilities began in Somalia in December 1990, with more than 300,000 Somalis dying in the conflict. As international aid agencies were leaving the country, MSF arrived and set up nutritional centres to treat the thousands of children suffering from malnutrition as a result of the months-long famine.

1993: Bosnia

In December 1992 MSF published a report denouncing the Bosnian-Serb policy of ethnic cleansing and the restriction of supplies to Srebrenica and Gorazde, two Muslim besieged enclaves. By mid-1993 MSF teams were providing medical and surgical assistance in these enclaves in eastern Bosnia.

1994: Genocide in Rwanda

As the genocide in Rwanda erupted in 1994, MSF teams witness the massacre of both patients and staff members, including more than 800,000 Tutsis and Hutus. MSF made an unprecedented decision to request an international military intervention. More than one million Rwandan refugees fleeing the violence took refuge in makeshift camps in the neighbouring country of Democratic Republic of Congo; within days, our teams had set up one of our largest cholera programs to date, treating refugees in the camps.

1994: MSF Australia is founded

1997: First foreign aid organisation in North Korea

In July 1997 MSF became the first foreign aid organisation permitted to visit and respond in the northern provinces of North Korea, following previous interventions in southern North Korea after severe flooding in 1995 and early 1997. With crops ruined and the government struggling to supply enough food, many young children were dying of malnutrition.

1999: The Nobel Peace Prize

In October 1999 MSF is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize “in recognition of the organisation’s pioneering humanitarian work on several continents” and to honour our medical staff who have treated tens of millions of people. James Orbinski, MSF international president from 1998 to 2001, gave the acceptance speech in Norway.

1999: MSF establishes the Access Campaign for medicines

The proceeds from MSF’s Nobel Peace Prize award were used to set up The Campaign for Access to Essential Medicines (today known as the Access Campaign), designed to support pilot projects for the clinical development, production, procurement and distribution of treatments for neglected diseases.

1999

2001: The HIV/AIDS epidemic

With the highest prevalence of HIV of any country in Asia, the early 2000s saw Cambodia experiencing a serious HIV/AIDS epidemic. Government reports indicated that less than three per cent of those infected had access to antiretroviral (ARV) treatment. MSF began providing ARV treatment in Cambodia, as well as in six additional countries.

2003: The war in Iraq

MSF teams remain in Baghdad during the war and challenge the US government on its failure to provide adequate medical care to civilians.

2004: Tsunami in Southeast Asia

MSF reacted immediately to the Asian tsunami disaster that took place on 26 December. Within 48 hours 32 tonnes of medical, water and sanitation supplies had been dispatched. Thanks to the huge international response to the tsunami, the worst of the emergency was over by May. 

2005: Nutrition crisis in Niger

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. It is the first time this treatment protocol is used on such a massive scale.

2010: Earthquake and cholera in Haiti

After a massive earthquake hits Haiti on 12 January, MSF launched the largest emergency intervention in its history. Hundreds of thousands of people were either wounded or dead and millions lost their homes. In October, after cholera hits Haiti, MSF opened more than 50 cholera treatment centers the country, launched widespread public education campaigns, and tended to more than 100,000 patients.

2014

2014: Ebola epidemic

MSF responded to the largest Ebola outbreak in history, treating 10,376 patients across six West African countries. 

2017: The Rohingya crisis

Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya people fled to Bangladesh, following targeted violence against them in Rakhine state, Myanmar. MSF ramps up operations, offering crucial aid to refugees in dire camp conditions. 

2017: MSF New Zealand is founded

2020

2020: COVID-19 pandemic

MSF teams raced to ensure access to healthcare is maintained for people, in the countries we already worked in and where we had not worked before. 

2022: War in Ukraine

During the escalation of war in Ukraine, MSF worked to ensure continuity of care for people caught up in, or forced to flee the fighting. MSF’s medicalised trains took patients from overburdened hospitals near active war zones to hospitals in safer areas. 

2023: War in Gaza

MSF responded to the needs in Gaza and is actively calling for an immediate and enduring ceasefire.