MSF first worked in Sri Lanka in 1986 to assist victims of the conflict between the Sri Lankan government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. We provided medical care through mobile clinics, and supported camps for displaced people and health structures until March 2004. Nine months later, we responded to a devastating tsunami by running mobile clinics, rebuilding structures, and providing material support to displaced people until 2005.

MSF returned in 2007, providing surgery to people caught up in renewed fighting and we continued to treat people affected by the fighting until 2012.