This study started out looking at the shift to a post-conflict situation in Katanga; the intention was to describe how MSF’s sections negotiated the transition from war to post-war. This raised the question of where to draw the line that distinguishes a conflict from a post-conflict situation. This was no easy task in North Katanga between 2000 and 2006. The situation at the time could be described neither as war nor peace; armed groups were committing widespread atrocities against civilians and this in turn led to extensive internal population displacement and generalised poverty. Our study does not therefore examine a post-conflict situation as such, but an unstable situation that is hard to classify within the dominant descriptions as being conflict/post-conflict, post-war or in transition.