On the morning of 26 October, more than 75 people were killed and over a hundred more injured in an airstrike in a densely populated area of Idlib in northwest Syria. With your support, Médecins Sans Frontières staff were there to care for the injured. Our hospital took in 11 patients. One of them was dead on arrival. Others had damaged limbs that required amputation.
There’s a real sense of emergency here, whether you look at the humanitarian setting, the public health emergency related to COVID-19 or the overall situation of conflict. The addition of all these elements further complicates what was an already-challenging situation in Idlib.
This recent escalation of violence, in a region of Syria hosting over 1 million internally displaced people, takes place even as the health system has already been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. As we have already seen this year, where COVID-19 and conflict combine forces, people die. As this year draws to a close, we need your help to save the lives of people in countries like Syria, Yemen, Afghanistan and South Sudan.