Iraq: Delivering babies in a city with few maternity services

April 6, 2022

It is a rainy morning in the Al-Nahwaran d a group of women are lining the neighbourhood of Mosul, Iraq’s second-biggest city, and in front of a small medical facility. The stormy weather has not stopped them from coming. The...

Iraq: Severe COVID-19 patients in Iraq “were almost sure to die”

February 17, 2021

At the end of July 2020 in Baghdad, the capital of Iraq, something strange started happening. In hospitals across the city, the doctors and nurses sweating in the Iraqi summer heat noticed that while their COVID-19 intensive care units were ever full, the...

Iraq: Displaced people in Laylan camp express fears as camp closes

November 24, 2020

AMSTERDAM – Early yesterday morning, trucks arrived at Laylan displaced people’s camp, in Kirkuk governorate, Iraq, in preparation for moving residents back to their areas of origin. Camp residents have expressed their fears of being returned against their will to staff from Doctors...

Iraq: COVID-19 outbreak in Baghdad is “very alarming”

September 24, 2020

The COVID-19 pandemic has become very alarming in Iraq, with the country currently reporting close to 4,000 new cases every day and around 500 deaths a week. Over the past month alone, more than 100,000 cases have been identified in the country. And...

Iraq: Yazidi community suffers one crisis after another

August 10, 2020

The COVID-19 pandemic is having a profound impact on the Yazidi community in the Sinjar district of northwest Iraq. Although there are not many cases recorded in the area, the restrictive measures adopted in Iraq (as in many other countries worldwide) to curb...

Iraq: MSF works on dual front of COVID-19 and lifesaving medical care in Mosul

August 5, 2020

Iraq has long suffered from war and political instability. The most recent conflict ended in 2017, when Mosul was recaptured after almost three years under the control of the Islamic State (IS) group. Three years later, the consequences of the conflicts in...

Iraq: Extending a helping hand in Iraqi health facilities

February 26, 2020

As protests continue to rock the southern Iraq city of Nasiriyah, the capital of Dhi Qaar province, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) continues to extend a hand to local hospitals. MSF is helping these facilities scale up their preparedness for...

Iraq: Mosul’s expectant mothers just can’t wait

September 11, 2019

It’s 2016 and the battle for Mosul has just begun, with Iraqi forces sweeping through Mosul from the east. Street by street, a city that has been under the control of the Islamic State (IS) group for over two years...