Working in the Central Mediterranean since 2015, Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) teams continue to bear witness to an unacceptable and preventable loss of life on Europe’s borders. 

Australian communications manager Eloise Liddy and Belgian psychologist Hager Saadallah both recently worked on board our search and rescue ship, Geo Barents. 

The protests against police brutality towards black people in the United States keep on reverberating around the world and shining a light on the deadly impact of racism globally, including in Australia and New Zealand.  

So, let us start off this editorial by writing the most important three words you will read here—black lives matter. Full stop. They matter in South Sudan, South Africa, they matter in Australia, they matter in the USA. This is a fact without borders. 

With the COVID-19 virus only recently emerging, there is limited evidence to tell the story of how women and girls are affected. But what is already known is the life-threatening impact on women and girls when essential sexual and reproductive health services are compromised or denied during a large-scale emergency.