Destroyed buildings in the village of Anjara, west of Aleppo city, as a result of the nearly 14-year-long war. The Doctors Without Borders mobile team provides primary healthcare to people who have recently returned to Anjara and other rural areas in Aleppo governorate. Syria, 2025 © AbdelRahman Sadeq/MSF.
“In light of the huge health care needs in Syria, Doctors Without Borders expanded its activities to 11 out of 14 governorates. The primary goal of our operations is to respond to the people’s medical and humanitarian needs, bringing care closer to communities who may not have access to it.”Brian Moller, Head of Mission
People with non-communicable diseases, for example, have been living without the treatment they need. After years of economic collapse, nine out of 10 Syrians are living in poverty, making what medication is available in the country unaffordable for many.
While needs are massive everywhere, the global severe funding cuts for humanitarian programmes have impacted all aid sectors in Syria, including the health care system. Many organisations have had to abruptly withdraw their support, forcing some hospitals and health care centres to make the difficult decision to reduce activities or close down completely.
A Doctors Without Borders nurse checks a patient’s vital signs before he sees the doctor to receive a consultation and the necessary medication. At the Doctors Without Borders mobile clinic in East Ghouta, rural Damascus, the medical team receives dozens of patients with non-communicable diseases daily. Syria, 2025 © AbdelRahman Sadeq/MSF.
Bringing care closer to communities
“In light of the huge health care needs in Syria, Doctors Without Borders expanded its activities to 11 out of 14 governorates,” says Brian Moller, Doctors Without Borders head of mission in Syria. “The primary goal of our operations is to respond to the people’s medical and humanitarian needs, bringing care closer to communities who may not have access to it.”
Doctors Without Borders is running a hospital for specialised burn treatment and co-managing a hospital with the Directorate of Health [Idlib], in addition to supporting four other hospitals with activities such as emergency care [Deir Ez-Zor], malnutrition treatment [Raqqa], and maternity care [Daraa] and providing mass casualty trainings and capacity building for staff members in other facilities across the country. We are also supporting the burn departments of five hospitals in Syria, assisting the Ministry of Health in developing a network of burn treatment units.
Doctors Without Borders is also working in 15 health facilities such as primary health care centres and clinics across the country. Among the activities run or supported by Doctors Without Borders are outpatient consultations, care for non-communicable diseases, sexual and reproductive health care services, and mental health support. In addition, we run mobile clinics to help ensure access to primary care in underserved communities [Aleppo, Idlib, and Rural Damascus].
Returning to rubble and remnants of war
As of July 2025, it is estimated that more than 1.5 million internally displaced Syrians have returned to their areas of origin since late November 2024, and more than 641,000 Syrian refugees have crossed back into Syria from neighbouring countries since early December 2024.
But they’re not necessarily returning home. People have come back to vast destruction that has severely affected civilian infrastructure such as houses, power grids, and water sources. With heavily damaged housing, people are living in shells of houses and completely unsafe buildings, putting them at risk of traumatic injury.
In addition, returnees face the life-threatening risk of unexploded ordnance and landmines, which are scattered throughout homes and farmlands, hampering their ability to rebuild their lives.
Lack of access to water and sanitation threatens health
Access to clean water in areas of return as well as displacement camps and settlements is a huge challenge, compounded by the lack of electricity, drought, and destroyed infrastructure. As a result, people rely on water distributed by trucks which carries a risk of contamination. Sewage and waste management systems are partially functioning at best, or completely destroyed in some areas.
“Doctors Without Borders is worried about the health implications of the poor water and sanitation conditions we’re witnessing in areas of return and displacement camps,” says Caroline Chestnutt, Doctors Without Borders water and sanitation activity manager in Syria. “Dire living conditions continue to put people at risk of infectious diseases such as skin infections, and waterborne diseases such as acute and chronic watery diarrhoea.”
Doctors Without Borders is engaged in water and sanitation activities in both areas of return and displacement camps across Syria, with teams rehabilitating boreholes and supplying residents with clean water.
“The work of our Syrian colleagues has been crucial in maintaining our activities throughout the conflict. Doctors Without Borders remains firmly committed to advocating for the most pressing needs and systematic gaps hindering access to essential medical care,” says Moller.
A map of Doctors Without Borders' activities in Syria. Doctors Without Borders / Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) currently works in six hospitals and 15 health care clinics or centres, in 11 out of 14 governorates in Syria, and additionally operating several mobile clinics. © MSF.
Doctors Without Borders in Syria
In the first six months of 2025, Doctors Without Borders provided, in collaboration with the Ministry of Health, more than:
- 396,200 outpatient consultations including for non-communicable diseases
- 135,700 emergency room consultations
- 125,900 paediatric consultations
- 85,400 sexual and reproductive healthcare consultations
- 23,800 inpatient admissions
- 18,200 individual mental health consultations
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