An MSF mobile clinic has treated many patients for respiratory infections as a result of their living conditions and the winter weather. Our teams have also provided medical care to many pregnant women and children in recent weeks.
MSF is also responding to the needs of newly arrived people with distributions of essential relief items in different locations in rural Idlib province. Since December 1 we’ve provided blankets, winter clothes, and hygiene kits to more than 13,000 people in more than 20 camps and informal settlements in Harim, Salqin, Sarmadah, Killi, and Maarat Misrin, as well as heating materials to help people keep warm.
MSF also distributes drinking water to tens of thousands of people in camps. But it’s increasingly difficult for us to meet the huge and growing needs.
Some camps west of Aleppo were evacuated over the weekend. Those who can afford to pay for transport are heading north towards Afrin and Azaz, near the Turkish border. Others travel to towns that are closer. But no matter where they go, no one is sure that they will receive any assistance.
“The war has been going on for nearly nine years,” says the MSF doctor in Deir Hassan camp, “But this year alone is equivalent to the past nine years if you consider all the difficulties we are living through.”