Médecins Sans Frontières has been told to leave by November 9 and says it hopes to find a “positive solution” soon.
Published October 29, 2025
The medical group Médecins Sans Frontières (known by its French acronym MSF) said in a statement that it had been ordered to leave Libya by November 9, without giving reasons for its expulsion.
MSF was already forced to suspend its operations in the country in March and said in a statement on Wednesday that it had been instructed to withdraw in a recent letter from the Libyan Foreign Ministry.
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“No justification has been provided for the expulsion and the process remains opaque,” Steve Purbrick, head of MSF’s programs in Libya, said in a statement.
“We believe that MSF still has an important role to play in Libya, particularly in diagnosing and treating tuberculosis and supporting Libya’s health system, but also in providing access to health care for refugees and migrants who are excluded from care and subject to arbitrary detention and serious violence,” he said.
We were ordered to leave Libya by November 9th. Our expulsion was carried out without justifiable reason and follows the suspension of our operations in the country since March this year.
We deeply regret this decision and hope a positive solution can be found.
— MSF International (@MSF) October 29, 2025
Perbrick said MSF’s registration with UN-recognized governments remains valid and the Geneva-based organization still hopes to find a “positive solution” to the situation.
MSF said it carried out more than 15,000 medical consultations last year in collaboration with the Libyan health authorities.
In 2023, it provided emergency medical aid after flash floods killed thousands of people in the coastal city of Derna.
Libya is divided between the U.N.-recognized Tripoli government led by Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah and a rival government in the east.
The North African country has remained divided since a NATO-backed uprising overthrew and killed longtime leader Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.
In March, MSF facilities were shut down by the Libyan Internal Security Service and several staff members were said to have been “interrogated”.
“This wave of repression also affected nine other humanitarian organizations operating in the west of the country,” MSF said.
“Due to increasing obstacles to NGO intervention, significant reductions in international aid funding, and the strengthening of European border policies in cooperation with the Libyan authorities, there are currently no international NGOs providing medical care to refugees and migrants in western Libya,” the report said.
MSF was founded in 1971 and has more than 67,000 staff working in more than 70 countries.
