The hospital MSF opened in Qayyarah last December is 60 km south of Mosul. Far away enough not to hear the sound of airstrikes and rocket fire but sufficiently close for the wounded to be brought in when medical facilities nearer the front line are no longer able to cope.
On February 18th, the Iraqi army launched an offensive with the support of an international coalition to retake west Mosul, the part of the city still under so-called Islamic State control.
The fighting has claimed many victims while large numbers of people living in neighbourhoods gradually recaptured by the army continue to flee, some ending up in camps in Qayyarah. The MSF team is now caring for patients from west Mosul, displaced persons camps, the town and the region.
