The Health Cluster in Gaziantep produces a monthly bulletin which provides an overall update on the main activities reported by health actors in northwestern Syria. The report talks about the recent developments in northwestern Syria, challenges and risks facing healthcare, progress towards the planned health targets and a brief from different NGOs on their conducted activities. Relief experts was part of this report which talks about its recent improvements in PHC and community health and some of the health trends picked up by UDER’s field teams.

The humanitarian situation for people in northwest Syria continues to deteriorate as the latest escalation in hostilities is now in its fourth month. Hundreds of civilians have been killed or injured due to airstrikes and shelling since 1 May while almost 630,000 displacements took place as people have fled their homes to escape from violence and to reach essential services that they need to survive.
The overwhelming majority of the displaced people are moving to densely-populated areas close to the Turkish border in northern Idleb governorate, where humanitarian assistance is overstretched.

Relief Experts Association has scaled-up its support to the newly displaced IDPs who arrived to Dana and Atareb through its primary healthcare centers and outreach community health teams. While the humanitarian response is ongoing to address the pressing needs of the newly displaced individuals as well as host communities, additional funding is urgently required to maintain and scale-up the current levels of emergency response in the coming weeks and months.

Local sources reported an accelerated movement of civilians northward away from the hostilities as the frontlines shifted. While the exact number of displaced individuals is difficult to ascertain at this stage, local sources are reporting that entire communities fled from the violence and in anticipation of hostilities affecting their villages and towns. Between 1 and 27 August, more than 130,000 displacements have been recorded from northern Hama and southern Idleb governorates. Many of these individuals and families have been displaced before, some of them multiple times, which makes them extremely vulnerable to additional shocks. The most recent wave of displacement adds increasing vulnerability for people in already dire humanitarian situation in northwest Syria. From 1 May to 27 August, some 630,000 individual displacements, which include secondary displacements2, have been recorded from northern Hama and southern Idleb governorates. Displacement within GoS-controlled areas is estimated currently at some 10,585 individuals, primarily in frontline villages in northern rural Hama and northern rural Latakia governorates.

Since late April, hundreds of civilians, many of whom are women and children, have lost their lives while countless others have suffered severe injuries, often leaving them with permanent disabilities. From 19 April to 29 August, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) documented that 1,089 civilians, including 572 men, 213 women and 304 children, were killed due to airstrikes and shelling carried out by parties to the conflict. The suffering of women, men, boys and girls is exacerbated by the widespread destruction of civilian infrastructure crucial for survival. Since late April, 51 health care facilities have reported receiving damage by violence in northwest Syria, as reported by WHO. Over the course of only two days, 28 to 30 August, seven medical facilities were reportedly damaged by airstrikes according to WHO. Six of these facilities – four hospitals and two primary health care centres – were functional at the time of the incidents. At least two of the health facilities damaged by airstrikes in August were paediatrics and maternity hospitals, yet another example of the heavy toll that the violence is taking on women and children. Similarly, the devastating effect of the hostilities on educational facilities will become more acute as the new school year is due to start in late September. While UNICEF reported 87 incidents that affected schools due the hostilities, education cluster members reported that 59 individual schools have been damaged by the violence since late April. Moreover, at least 94 schools are reportedly being used as shelter by IDPs across northwest Syria. According to one report, out of an estimated 650,000 school-aged children in northwest Syria, less than half can be accommodated at the remaining functional schools.

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