Testimony


You can see how many patients we have. It’s 10.30 in the morning and already there are more than 100 people in the health centre.
Dr Mustafa Ajaj is the manager
of a health centre in
northwest Syria
supported by MSF




We used to be in Takad. But two months ago regime forces began a brutal offensive on southern and eastern rural Aleppo province, and now western rural Aleppo province.
More than 900,000 people
have been displaced
since 1 December 2019




Large numbers of people fled to safer areas. Takad was safe and we received a lot of displaced people from all over rural Idlib province. That was at the beginning.
People are frightened
by the indiscriminate
bombing and shelling




But then the offensive intensified on 14 February and people started to flee. By 15 February there was no one left in Takad. All the families had left for safer areas.
We decided to move the health centre to a safer location and help the many displaced people in the area.
We came here to Deir Hassan camp - a group of settlements sheltering over 100,000 people.
Some people have had to flee
multiple times to escape the bombs






There was no health centre in Deir Hassan so we found an empty building and moved in, bringing all our medical equipment from Takad.
We started helping people straight away. As you can see, there’s a huge number of patients. These people all fled their homes to shelter in the camp.
The camp is overcrowed
and has no functioning
health facilities




There are no houses for them to stay in, so they’ve had to make the hills their home.
There’s no space left. Some people are heading for Azaz and Afrin because it’s so crowded here.
Since the start of the military offensive, MSF has stepped up its activities in northwest Syria in order to provide more assistance for displaced people