Syria

The United Nations has estimated that over 13 million Syrians are in need of immediate humanitarian assistance. An estimated 6.5 million people are internally displaced in Syria, with over 5 million Syrians seeking asylum internationally.

Closed borders, appalling living conditions and limited assistance have compounded their suffering. People fleeing violence live in camps, improvised shelters or with host families.

Violence, attacks on health facilities, the absence of government authorisation and the reneging by armed groups on guarantees of safety for MSF teams have been major obstacles to a more extensive program of medical humanitarian aid in Syria.

Indiscriminate Targeting of Civilians

Siege warfare has been widely used in Syria. Civilian areas have been routinely bombed and deprived of assistance.

Early on, the systematic bombing of civilian areas made it a priority to help treat the wounded. We opened surgical facilities in the north, provided supplies and training to health staff across the country, and set up cross-border trauma care in Jordan. As living conditions deteriorated in the north, we set up a surgical burns unit. 

MSF was one of the only organisations to start providing medical assistance inside Raqqa, through a primary healthcare unit and a stabilisation point. Even as the violence subsided, and residents started to return home, staff saw a sharp increase in the number of patients wounded or killed by booby traps, improvised explosive devices (IEDs), mines and explosive ordnance that littered the city or deliberately left in homes, on agricultural land and along roadsides.