Mosul - Nablus hospital - March 2018

The battle to recapture the city of Mosul from the Islamic State group lasted for nine months in 2017. During the conflict, thousands of people were injured or killed, and hundreds of thousands displaced. The frontlines cut through densely populated areas, which meant many people were effectively under siege, sometimes for months on end. Only the walking wounded were able to access medical care, and even so, they often had to wait days before they could safely leave their homes and try to reach a clinic or hospital. By the time the violence subsided, the infrastructure in west Mosul, including medical facilities, had been decimated.
At the end of May 2017, Médecins Sans Frontières / Doctors Without Borders (MSF) opened an emergency room, operating theatre and maternity ward in Nablus hospital, in west Mosul. For weeks, the frontline was less than 2 kilometres away. As the conflict subsided and the number of trauma cases decreased, the hospital expanded its maternity and paediatric care activities. Overall in 2017, teams managed 9,421 emergency cases, performed 455 surgical interventions, assisted 1,410 deliveries and admitted 469 children to the facility. Today, the hospital is one of just two functioning and free medical centres in West Mosul.

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