An aerial view of a road and dykes being built
Photo Story

A year in pictures 2022

Pictures from a year of humanitarian responses in 36 different countries

Pictures from a year of humanitarian response

In 2022, MSF teams around the world continued to respond to crises, old and new. While COVID-19 was no longer the emergency it was in previous years, new challenges arose. The war in Ukraine escalated in February; the political, humanitarian and economic crises in Haiti deteriorated severely; cholera emerged on an exceptional scale in several countries.

This collection of 63 images, from December 2021 until November 2022, outlines 12 months of some of the work our teams undertook, highlights the people whom we serve, or illustrates the contexts in which we work.

A child plays with a balloon at Al-Sweida camp
A child plays with a balloon at Al-Sweida camp for internally displaced people in Marib, Yemen. MSF community mental health workers organize psychosocial activities with children of internally displaced families to promote their natural upbringing, improve their social skills and sense of cooperativeness in a complex environment.
Hesham Al Hilali
Patient referral by helicopter in Rhoe Camp
Patients and their families inside the UN helicopter that is used by MSF to refer patients between Rhoe and Bunia hospital. Since the attacks on Drodro in November forced people to flee and teams to abandon the General Referral Hospital there, the helicopter is the only means of referral and supply to the Rhoe IDP (Internally displaced people) camp, where MSF runs the health centre.
Alexis Huguet
Water, sanitation and Hygiene activities in Rhoe camp
WASH (Water, sanitation and Hygiene) activities by MSF teams in Rhoe camp. After successive attacks in the region forced more than 40,000 additional people to take refuge in the Rhoe site in 2 months, bringing its population to more than 65,000 displaced, MSF increased WASH activities to provide clean water and latrines to displaced people in the camp.
Alexis Huguet
A man on the move found in the forest in Kabeliai frontier section
A man unable to walk was found in Kabeliai frontier section near Dūbas village and taken to the Druskininkai hospital,Kabeliai, Varėna district, Lithuania, December 2021.
Vidmantas Balkunas
Barangay Catadman, Surigao City
All that remains of the barangay health center are a few walls, a rusty weighing scale and a damaged examination bed. The roof was blown away by Typhoon Rai (local name Odette).
Regina Layug Rosero
Boost Hospital - Male IDP
Gul, 40, washes his hands with the help of his son in the male inpatient department at the MSF-supported Boost hospital in Lashkar Gah, Helmand province.
Oriane Zerah
DR-TB Project Hargeisa
Nimo Abdi* (name changed to protect her identity), rests on her bed in the DR-TB ward, Hargeisa.
Sean Sutton
MSF staff on their journey to set up a clinic
MSF staff on their journey to set up a clinic in Ah Nau Ywe camp in Paukaw township, 15 March 2022
Ben Small
Mudslide at Ramba, Kalehe
In Ramba, Kalehe Territory, South Kivu, mosquito larvae are thriving in standing water. To prevent an outbreak of malaria, MSF has distributed mosquito nets impregnated with insecticide to affected families.
Norah Mbadu
SOUTH SUDAN - Access to safe water
Sera James a resident of Akello village, draws water from the bore hole as she shares a laugh with her friends.
Njiiri Karago
Prototypes of hand and arm prostheses made as part of the 3D Program
The shelf is filled with prototypes of hand and arm prostheses made as part of the 3D Program that aims to equip as many amputee patients as possible.
SORIYA
MSF in Agadez
After being imprisoned M. was sold to work as house servant, then he gained his freedom and was able to go back to Niger with his wife and his 4 years old daughter. Burns are visible on his arms and his back. He also told us that during the imprisonment in Libya he saw two men beaten and killed in front of him.
Yarin Trotta del Vecchio
Children on the Geo Barents
Children watch a cartoon in the women's area of the Geo Barents. The rescue ship operated by MSF, continues patrolling the search and rescue area for more boats in distress. Rotation 8. Central Mediterranean Sea.
Kenny Karpov
Border crossing with Ukraine
Poland, Hrebenne . Border crossing with Ukraine. Refugees who escaped from Ukraine in makeshift humanitarian point.
Maciej Moskwa
burning apartment building
People look at a burning apartment building in a yard after shelling in Mariupol, Ukraine, Sunday, March 13, 2022.
Evgeniy Maloletka
Ukrainian refugees in Palanca
A mother took her daughter out of the crowed to reassure her while waiting to board a bus at departure dispatch point. Palanca, Moldova / March 10th 2022.
Maxime Fossat
Breast and cervical cancer screening mass campaign
During the cancer awareness and early detection campaign on March 12, 2022 in Bamako, Djénèbou Diallo, head of the screening component of the MSF oncology project, demonstrates breast self-examination, a simple technique that women should apply at home to detect any malignant lump of cancer suspicion.
Mohamed Dayfour Diawara
Hospital Nosy Varika
Cleaning and rehabilitation of the wards of the hospital in Nosy Varika, which has been partially destroyed by the cyclones, as numerous health centres in this remote area, where people have very limited access to healthcare and other essential services. MSF teams are supporting medical activities and and rehabilitating the hospital, as well as 5 other health centres damaged by the cyclones
iAko M. Randrianarivelo/Mira Photo
A fisherman repairing his canoe
A fisherman repairing his canoe. Batsirai has had serious consequences for fishing. After Batsirai, fish are increasingly scarce, which heavily affects the daily income of fishermen. If before Batsirai they had an income of 30,000 to 40,000 Ariary (about 9 euros) per day, now they barely have an income of 4,000 to 5,000 Ariary (about 1 euro).As there have been no fish for a month, the fishermen do not go out to sea. For the time being, they are living on the few provisions they have left.
iAko M. Randrianarivelo/Mira Photo
Sierra Leone - Barriers to accessing health care 2022
Aminata had just delivered her baby in the MSF-supported Community Health Centre (CHC) in Mile 91, Tonkolili.
Oliver Barth/MSF
Venezuelan Migrants in Peru
A Venezuelan migrant holds his daughter as he looks out from the malecón along the Tumbes River in central Tumbes, 23 kms/14 miles from the Peru-Ecuador border. There, migrants rest and take shelter from the sun or the rain.
MAX CABELLO ORCASITAS
Torture victims in Mexico
Inside the Integral Attention Center in Mexico City. Run by MSF, it welcomes the victims of extreme violence, torture or inhumane treatment. Here, a multidisciplinary team offers psychological and physical attention to the patients, as well as a safe place to stay until their recovery.
Jordi Ruiz Cirera
Amputee shaving a man
Muawiyah Al-Wahidi, 42, was unlocking his barber shop in Gaza city on 12th May 2021, when a rocket hit a car in the street near him. He was uninjured, but the tailor from the shop opposite ran towards him, screaming that he’d been hit in the chest. Half way across the road he collapsed with blood flowing from his mouth. Muawiyah was sat next to him, reciting prayers, when the next rocket hit. This time he was not so lucky. When he woke in hospital his right leg had been amputated and his left ankle shattered.
Giles Duley
Amro Ayman Alhadad, 23, was injured by a bullet on 14th May 2018 drawing
Amro Ayman Alhadad, 23, was injured by a bullet on 14th May 2018 while at the Great March of Return. He had been bused, along with his school friends, to the border, in order to join the protest against Trump’s decision to open the US Embassy in Jerusalem. His bus arrived at 11.15am, by 11.30 am, Amro tells me, he’d been shot in the leg and with his artery severed, he soon lost consciousness. According to Gaza’s ministry of health, on that day 52 Palestinians were killed and 2,400 injured. In the chaos, Amro had been presumed dead. It was only by chance that a neighbour, who worked as an ambulance driver, saw him among the bodies and realised he was still alive.  
Giles Duley
Bentiu internally displaced persons (IDP) camp from the air.
Bentiu internally displaced persons (IDP) camp from the air. Flood waters surround the camp, where approximately 120,000 people are living. The dykes are the only thing protecting the camp from flooding.
Peter Caton/MSF
People walk on road between dykes
Internally displaced people walk along the road between the dykes into the Bentiu IDP camp, where approximately 120,000 people are currently residing. These dykes are all that are preventing the entire camp from flooding.
Peter Caton/MSF
Non Food Item distribution
Members of the MSF logistics team distribute blankets and jerry cans in Nyin Deng Ayuel displacement camp in Twic County. After fleeing violence in Agok, thousands of people have been left without basic essentials to survive.
Scott Hamilton/MSF
Illeret ward water sources
Women fetch water in one of the shallow wells along a dry river bed in Illeret. The ravaging drought has led to a water shortage in the region forcing residents to look for alternative water sources, unsafe for human consumption.
Lucy Makori
MSF Mobile Clinics in Kharkiv Metro
Akademika Barabashova host tens of IDPs most of them are elderly people.
Mohammad Ghannam
Bioanalyst Xiomara Villoria holds a COVID-19 test to be processed
Bioanalyst Xiomara Villoria holds a COVID-19 test to be processed at the Public Health Molecular Biology Laboratory in San Cristóbal, Táchira State, western Venezuela. MSF refurbished and set up a laboratory that will be managed by local health authorities in the state, which now has a specialized machine capable of analyzing molecular tests with high precision.
Matias Delacroix
Abandoned vehicle in the floods
In Rubkona, South Sudan, vehicles lay abandoned and submerged in the floods that have devastated the area.
Peter Caton/MSF
Boat Sailing to rescue
On the night of May 11, we rescued 67 people from a wooden boat in danger of sinking in Maltese SAR zone. Later the same night, we rescued another 29 persons from a rubber boat in distress also in Maltese SAR zone. There was a total lack of coordination from Maltese authorities against their obligation to provide assistance to boats in distress.
Anna Pantelia/MSF
Atija walks through Eduardo Mondlane camp for displaced people
Atija walks through Eduardo Mondlane camp for displaced people to counsel pregnant and lactating women. She is 66 years old and lives there too. She is originally from Mocímboa da Praia, a town heavily hit by attacks due to the ongoing conflict in the northern province. She now works with MSF as a traditional birth attendant (TBA) and assists more than 100 women in the camp. Like many of them, she lived through traumatic experiences, witnessing her husband’s and son’s murder. Now, she says she loves doing her job since she can help women in their time of need – “When I arrived here, this place was a forest. Some good people helped me to get settled. Now I can also help pregnant women. I know they need my support.”
Mariana Abdalla/MSF
Doctors on Rails - MSF Medicalised train in Ukraine
The medical team on board the MSF medical train discuss the condition of an eldelry war-wounded patient during the journey from Pokrovsk in eastern Ukraine, to Lviv in western Ukraine. The journey takes approximately 20 hours. Since 31 March, we have transported more than 600 patients.
Andrii Ovod
the construction site for what will be the "Senda de Vida II" migrant shelter
At the construction site for what will be the "Senda de Vida II" migrant shelter, a Haitian woman retrieves water from an old combustibles transport trailer that is being used as a water tank. There is not enough space at local shelters, so many migrants are living in precarious conditions with limited access to essentials like health care, food, and clean water.
Yael Martínez/Magnum
Gabriel Kalany, MSF Academy student, gets ready for a training session
Gabriel Kalany, MSF Academy student in Old Fangak, gets ready for a session of practice at the Skills Lab. After arranging his trolley with all required tools to perform the placement of a urinary catheter on a mannequin, he puts on disposal gloves. After 18 months of training, Gabriel graduated from the MSF Academy in Old Fangak in June 2022.
Florence Miettaux
MSF Emergency Centre in Turgeau
Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Monday, June 21, 2022. Part of a batch of projectiles of different calibers that MSF doctors removed from the wounds of some MSF patients at the Emergency Centre of Turgeau... Stray bullet wounds are becoming more frequent in Port-au-Prince.
Johnson Sabin
Medical Care for patient in Diffa
Halima Hamadou (4) was admitted with a headwound. Her mother Zeinaolou Hamadou (35) is comforting her while our team treats her.
Oliver Barth/MSF
Baby sleeping at Nablus hospital, West Mosul
Hussein, born a few hours ago, via caesarean section. His mother is still resting. They come from Tal Afar (77 kilometres away from Mosul), and are for the first time in the MSF-run Nablus hospital. A doctor in Tal Afar referred her, but the family had heard already about Nablus hospital previously. The baby was born in good health one week earlier.
Florence Dozol
Gulnaz plays with her daughter
Treating cutaneous leishmaniasis in Peshawar, Pakistan - Gulnaz plays with her daughter at her brother’s house. She has travelled to her relatives’ place in Peshawar to get her treatment due to the unavailability of medicines, the treatment is not available in Pakistan. in Peshawar, Pakistan, on 26 May 2022.
Saiyna Bashir
MSF health promoter Arina Ilchenko and nine-year-old Karina
MSF health promoter Arina Ilchenko and nine-year-old Karina in a shelter for Displaced Persons in Dnipro. Ukraine, June 2022.
Alexander Glyadyelov
Amaka Joseph, 35, tends to her recovering child
Amaka Joseph, 35, tends to her recovering child at an ITFC facility at Specialist Hospital Sokoto, Nigeria on Friday 22 July 2022.
KC NWAKALOR
In front of school in Liberia
Children living with epilepsy in Liberia can find it difficult to stay in school because of their seizures and the stigma attached to them.
Carielle Doe
Person being rescued
On the afternoon of June 27, the MSF team rescued 71 people from a rubber boat in distress. 22 people are missing, three persons were stabilized, including very young children, and one women died later on board after 30 minutes of resuscitation. A woman and her baby in critical state were also evacuated to Malta during the same night. This is another tragic rescue in the Central Mediterranean and everyone is in a very weak condition and traumatized. The MSF medical team on board is looking after the survivors until disembarkation in a place of safety.
Anna Pantelia/MSF
MSF nurse straps up the ankle of a patient
An MSF nurse straps up the ankle of a patient during a medical consultation of the MSF mobile clinic in Horgos 2 border crossing area in Serbia. In 2022 MSF is operational in informal settlements at the Serbian-Hungarian and Serbian-Romanian borders, with two mobile clinics providing primary health care, psycho-social support and health promotion activities, assessing and treating patients for physical injuries allegedly as a result of border violence.
Evgenia Chorou
Watertap in Ter Apel
 MSF provides medical care for stranded asylum-seekers in the Netherlands
Olga Victorie
Emergency Medical Aid (EMA) for new arrivals in Samos, Greece
Medium shot of newly arrived people walking down a rocky path in Samos island, Greece. MSF’s emergency medical aid response has shown the high medical and humanitarian needs amongst new arrivals. During our interventions, most people we assist are exhausted and severely distressed. A lot of them are dehydrated after spending a long time, sometimes several days, in the bush without access to food and water. When they arrive on the island, they usually immediately run to hide in hills/mountains, reportedly afraid to be found by the border forces and forced return.
Alice Gotheron
An aerial view of a road and dykes being built
An aerial view of a road and dykes being built by the UN in Bentiu. The dykes are up to 2.5 metres high and 5 metres wide. The flooding around Bentiu spans 80km.
CHRISTINA SIMONS
Sudanese refugee from Darfur living in eastern Chad
A phone charging shop in Guereda district, eastern Chad. In 2003, a deadly war erupts in western Sudan’s Darfur province. At least 300,000 people are killed. The war is sparked by the repression of the rebellion against Omar al-Bashir and struggles over the control of natural resources, water, and the most fertile land. Since 2003, some 370,000 Sudanese people have fled the violence and taken refuge in neighbouring Chad. Some have endured almost 20 years of harsh living conditions in refugee camps along the Chad-Sudan border. Over the years, Médecins Sans Frontières teams have been responding repeatedly to the waves of violence and displacement near the Chad-Sudan border. In 2022, they helped to improve access to medical care, safe water, hygiene and sanitation in refugee camps in Guereda district. 20 years after the war started in Sudan, Sudanese refugees and Chadian communities living in eastern Chad still struggle to survive, supported by a humanitarian response that is too small to meet all their needs.
Mohammad Ghannam/MSF