Located between Bria and Bakouma, the village of Nzacko is a mirror of the crisis that is affecting CAR for close to 20 years.

Nzacko has been regularly affected by clashes, lootings and displacements in the past decade. Due to the security situation and geographical constraints, its population has been largely out of reach of humanitarian organisations for years. Apart from MSF, almost no medical humanitarian NGO has been able to regularly access Nzacko in recent years.

When armed violence restarted in CAR after the December 2020 presidential elections, many inhabitants of Nzacko once again had to flee violence, living for months in very precarious conditions. Even MSF did not have access to the area.

As clashes eventually ended, the population gradually started to return to Nzacko. In July 2021, MSF was the first humanitarian organisation able to return to this village in order to assess needs and support the only existing health centre. The pharmacy was empty. Equipment was non-existent or inadequate. And local staff was not adequately trained to provide care to a population in need.

It took about 10 hours for the MSF convoy to join Nzacko from Bangassou, 190 kilometers further South. In this rainy season, the road was muddy, and crossing the river was not easy. Because of the storm, a tree fell on the road, forcing the team to get out the saws in the pouring rain to allow the vehicles to pass.

This photo package is based on a 4-day outreach visit from the MSF team to Nzacko. Four days to restock the pharmacy in essential medicines, to conduct training for health staff and community health workers, to install solar panels to provide the electricity needed to cool the vaccines... A vital race against time given the number of patients in need after many months in the forest.