Attacks on medical and humanitarian missions

State violence, local victims, and the targeting of transport

December 2025
Helen Richards, Natasha Sax and Alejandro Pozo, advisers at the Applied Reflection Centre for Humanitarian Practice (ARHP)

MSF’s experience in conflict areas highlights how health services are increasingly threatened in armed conflicts, particularly in urban warfare. Attacks frequently violate international humanitarian law (IHL) yet continue with little accountability. Beyond the immediate harm to staff, patients, and infrastructure, such violence disrupts or suspends medical services, denying people their right to adequate care.