Syria: "Patients Often Arrive In Waves" | Doctors Without Borders

Syria 2013 © Sebastian Stein/MSF

Jabal Al-Akrad, a mountainous region in northern Syria where MSF runs a field hospital.

MSF Field Coordinator Katrin Kisswani

Field Coordinator Katrin Kisswani headed Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF)’s activities in northern Syria for two months. Here, she describes the difficult reality faced by the population and MSF teams in the mountainous area of Jabal Al-Akrad, where the health system has collapsed after nearly two years of conflict:


The Jabal Al-Akrad region, in the north of Idlib governorate, is fairly mountainous and close to the border with Turkey. While some of these areas haven’t seen fighting of the same frequency and intensity as areas further inland, the situation remains extremely volatile and dangerous.

Helicopter Attacks

Almost on a daily basis certain villages here come under attack from rockets and helicopters that drop drums full of explosives and metallic devices. The impact of these attacks is devastating for the local population—shrapnel wounds and crush wounds from collapsing houses. It’s a beautiful area and on bright days the clear blue sky gives a stunning view of the mountains. But the beauty is always short-lived, as a clear day means the helicopters are bound to come. There were days when several drums were dropped in the centers of populated villages and we received several wounded, including children and women, at our field hospital. One was dead on arrival, several needed surgical interventions, there were internal injuries, and one old woman needed to have a foot amputated due to the severity of her shrapnel wound..............

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