On the eve of the International Conference on Syria to be held at the Elysée Palace on Thursday 13 February, the NGO Mehad, one of the main health NGOs present in Syria since the start of the war, is warning that the humanitarian crisis has worsened since the fall of the regime, and that many health centres are in danger of closing for lack of funding.
The historic fall of the former government on 8 December 2024 revealed unprecedented humanitarian needs in Syria, in a context that is still highly volatile and violent.
After almost 14 years of conflict, 16.5 million people are in need of urgent humanitarian aid. Since 8 December, there have been 652,000 more internally displaced people in the country, which already had 7 million.
In addition to the persistent climate of violence, the many unexploded mines are also still claiming victims, with at least 116 children killed or injured in December 2024 alone.
Vulnerable populations (particularly children and women) are in urgent need of assistance, facing major difficulties in accessing basic services, including healthcare.
One of the main humanitarian challenges is the collapse of the health system. According to the new Syrian Health Minister, of the 1,777 health centres in Syria, only 16.4% are currently operational, and most of these are only partially or very partially functional.
The sector remains extremely fragile due to a lack of funding. The recent freezing of US aid was a fatal blow, adding to the destruction of infrastructure in many regions.
45% of health centres threatened with imminent closure
“For example, of the 391 health establishments listed in the Idleb and Northern Aleppo region, 167 are threatened with imminent closure for lack of funding from the end of March, i.e. 45% of the centres,” points out Dr Mego Terzian, a humanitarian doctor and Director General of the NGO Mehad, which manages around forty health centres in Syria. ” Nearly half of the 60 emergency obstetric and neonatal centres are at risk of closing within three months, putting the lives of pregnant mothers and newborn babies at risk”.
Not to mention the severe food shortages, which mainly affect major cities such as Deir ez-Zor, Aleppo and Damascus, and the acute problems of access to energy (in Homs and Hama, for example, electricity is only available for 45 to 60 minutes every 8 hours), which are multiplying the number of avoidable deaths. “I’ve seen babies die because of an incubator that wasn’t supplied with electricity “, says Ziad Alissa, President of the NGO Mehad, who recently visited Syria and has just published an open letter calling for urgent action in Syria.
Without substantial funding for humanitarian aid, commensurate with the needs and urgency, “we are facing a health and humanitarian disaster”, warns Mego Terzian, who, on behalf of the NGO Mehad and other NGOs working in Syria, is urging institutional funders to provide an urgent response to the Syrian humanitarian crisis.
