MSF is delivering critical care and relief in Syria to strengthen the health system and curtail a health catastrophe.
Sectarian tensions and border clashes—often marked by violence—are obstacles to stabilisation and reconciliation in Syria. With 90 per cent of the population living in poverty (UNHCR 2025), health and humanitarian needs are increasing to record levels but cuts to aid are limiting access to care.
The country is vulnerable to emergencies—a shortage of health workers, healthcare centres and hospital beds means the system struggles to meet even routine needs.
Of concern: dire water and sanitation conditions and poor hygiene. These are putting the health of people, particularly those who are internally displaced, at even more risk.
Crisis in Syria
The current situation
As of March 2025
Syria is emerging from a 14-year conflict but is experiencing a critical disconnect between health and humanitarian needs and funding and resource allocation.
A decrease in aid is restricting response, with an estimated 40 per cent of health facilities suspending or reducing capacity. This is leading to an increase in hardship. For example, 87 people wounded by war—including unexploded ordinances—received treatment at the National Hospital in Deir ez-Zur in February 2025. The hospital is the only provider of surgical trauma care in the governorate, but it is dysfunctional due to lack of budget, neglect and war.
The decrease in aid is also increasing hardship for the more than 2 million people forced to leave their homes for overcrowded camps. For example, water trucking is suspended in some camps and access to external medical referrals severely impacted in all camps. For the nearly 38,000 people at the Al-Hol camp in the northeast, services in The National Hospital in Al Hasakah were cut without warning, leaving patients to bear the cost of referrals themselves.
How MSF is responding
Following the collapse of president Bashar al-Assad’s government in December 2024, our teams travelled to Damascus, Aleppo, Daraa, Hama and other governorates in early 2025. Their assessment of needs: the displacement crisis—once considered the biggest in the world—is still far from over, and; the depleted health infrastructure, lack of safe access to care, dire living conditions and catastrophic water and sanitation infrastructure raise significant concerns for safety and wellbeing.
We are committed to continue providing medical care in the northwest and northeast, and we are expanding our presence to launch new activities in Damascus and other governorates.
Where MSF is responding
Northwest
Northeast
Our mobile clinics are facilitating access to care. We provided more than 3,000 outpatient consultations and 300 psychological first aid sessions and reached more than 1,000 children with recreational activities in safe spaces between December 2024 and February 2025.
The corridor of a school in Raqqa used as a temporary shelter for people forced from their homes in the Afrin region | January 2025 © Giammarco Sicuro
