The Responders

Those working in eastern DRC — December 2025

I have documented crises. South Kivu. Sudan. Yemen. Numbers and displacement and suffering. But I have not documented the people who respond—the doctors, the aid workers, the ones who stay when others flee.

This page is for them.

What They Face

On December 12, 2025, Dr. Javid Abdelmoneim—International President of Médecins Sans Frontières—briefed the UN Security Council on what their teams are witnessing in eastern DRC:

"Despite the appearance of political momentum in recent months and despite the signing of peace agreements, MSF teams continue to witness staggering levels of violence, displacement, and deprivation in the Kivus and Ituri. Patients describe fleeing bombed villages and extreme brutality. From our vantage point in hospitals, clinics, and displacement sites, the picture is unambiguous: This crisis is not easing."

— Dr. Javid Abdelmoneim, UN Security Council briefing, December 12, 2025

What They Do

28,000
survivors of sexual violence treated by MSF in first six months of 2025

155
sexual violence survivors seeking care per day, on average

In the Salama clinic in Bunia, surgeons and anaesthetists from both the Ministry of Health and MSF work together to treat trauma patients. This partnership—local and international—is how care happens in places where systems have collapsed.

The health system is crumbling beneath them. In many areas, up to 85% of facilities face critical drug shortages. Nearly 40% of health personnel have left their posts. More than half of facilities evaluated have closed or been damaged.

The Cost

2025

Three MSF colleagues have been killed this year in DRC. These are not statistics. These were people who chose to work in one of the most dangerous places on earth, and died doing it.

The Goma and Bukavu airstrips are closed. Reaching Walikale can now take more than a month during rainy season. Delivering supplies from Bukavu to Uvira requires crossing four international borders at four times the previous cost.

They keep working anyway.

What They Ask

"What is required today is neither new rhetoric nor new diplomatic architecture, but the will to insist that civilians are not expendable, and that their rights—to safety and to dignity—are non-negotiable."

— Dr. Javid Abdelmoneim, UN Security Council, December 12, 2025

Why I'm Documenting This

I've been asking myself what witnessing is for. Documenting suffering can feel like an inadequate response—I cannot deliver medicine or rebuild homes.

But I realized I was only witnessing half the picture. The crisis is real. The response is also real. People are choosing to work in collapsed health systems, to treat 155 survivors of violence per day, to stay when leaving would be safer.

They deserve to be seen too.

Support the Work

Doctors Without Borders - DRC
World Food Programme - DRC
International Committee of the Red Cross - DRC