Jordan hospital treats war casualties from across Middle East
'I feel sad when I look around me in this place' seeing 'people like me, innocent, simple civilians' whose lives have been blighted by the horrors of war, said Abd al-Rahman, a 21-year-old Iraqi patient. 'They are victims of war, burned by its fires... but had no part in igniting them,' he told AFP.
He is waiting for his ninth operation at the Amman hospital, to treat third-degree burns to his face, neck, abdomen, back and hand he suffered in an accident with unexploded ordnance in his native city of Samarra, north of Baghdad. 'I was a child when I was burned 10 years ago,' he said. 'My life was completely destroyed, and my future was lost. I left school even though my dream was to become a pilot one day.'
Abd al-Rahman, who had 17 surgeries in Iraq before arriving at the hospital in Jordan, said that through 'all these painful operations', he hopes to 'regain some of my appearance and life as a normal human being'. At Al-Mowasah, also known as the Specialized Hospital for Reconstructive Surgery and run by medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF), Abd al-Rahman said he has found comfort in meeting patients from around the region. 'We spend long periods of time here, sometimes many months, and these friendships reduce our loneliness and homesickness.'
Young patients who sustained injuries in conflict zones, walk along a corridor at the Al-Mowasah hospital, run by medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) in Amman, on April 15, 2025. - AFP
Hanna Janho, orthopedic and joint surgery consultant examines a patient at the Al-Mowasah hospital, run by medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) in Amman, on April 15, 2025.
Patients enter the Al-Mowasah hospital, run by medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) in Amman, on April 15, 2025.
'They feel safe'
MSF field communications manager Merel van de Geyn said the hospital has patients 'from conflict zones across the Middle East, from Syria, Yemen, Iraq and Gaza'. 'We provide them with complete treatment free of charge' and cover the cost of flights, food and other expenses, she said. In addition to the medical procedures, the hospital places great importance on psychological support. 'Here, they feel safe,' said van de Geyn. 'They're surrounded by people who have gone through similar experiences... Mutual support truly helps them.'
From her room on the hospital's fifth floor, Shahd Tahrawi, a 17-year-old Palestinian, recalled the night of December 9, 2023, when a massive explosion destroyed her family's home in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip. The Zionist military bombardment killed her father and 11-year-old sister, and left Shahd and her mother wounded. Shahd has had five operations on her left leg, three of them in Jordan.
She said that on the night of the strike, she was woken up by the sound of the explosion and the rubble falling on her. 'I started screaming, 'Help me, help me!'... and then I lost consciousness.' Now, she said her dream was to become a doctor and help 'save people's lives, just like the doctors save mine'.
The hospital was established in 2006 to treat victims of the sectarian violence that erupted in Iraq in the aftermath of the US-led invasion, but has since expanded its mission. In just under two decades, 8,367 patients from Iraq, Yemen, the Palestinian territories, Sudan, Libya and Syria have undergone a total of 18,323 surgeries for injuries caused by bullets, explosions, bombardment, air strikes and building collapses in conflict. The hospital has 148 beds, three operating theatres, and physiotherapy and psychological support departments. In one room, four Yemeni patients were convalescing. — AFP
One of them, 16-year-old Mohammed Zakaria, had dreamt of becoming a professional footballer, before his life changed dramatically when an air strike blew up a fuel tanker in Yarim, south of the Yemeni capital Sanaa, in 2016. The blast killed six of his relatives and friends, his father, Zakaria Hail, said. 'The war has brought us nothing but destruction,' said the father, sitting next to his son who is unable to speak after recent surgery to his mouth. - AFP
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Kuwait Times
a day ago
- Kuwait Times
Turkmenistan bids to eradicate smoking in 2025
ASHGABAT, Turkmenistan: When he was a teenager, Bekmurad Khodjayev used to hide from his parents to smoke. Fifty years later, the Turkmen pensioner is still hiding, but this time from the police. 'I smoke in my apartment. But if I feel like smoking in town, I find a place without surveillance cameras to avoid a fine — an alleyway, a dead end, behind some tall bushes or trees, a deserted spot,' the 64-year-old builder told AFP. The reclusive Central Asian state of seven million people, where the rate of smoking is already very low, has vowed to eradicate the habit altogether by the end of the year. Khodjayev said he had already been fined for smoking near his home. 'Since then, I try not to get caught anymore,' he said. The target of going tobacco-free was set in 2022 by the country's supreme leader, Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, a former dentist. Only four percent of Turkmens smoke, according to the World Health Organization. There are heavy taxes and restrictions on cigarettes and smoking in almost all public places is now banned. Khodjayev says he buys cigarettes at private kiosks since state shops run by the ministry of commerce do not have them. In his kiosk in the capital Ashgabat, seller Meilis said the cigarettes came from Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Iran. 'Most of the time, I sell single ones. Not everyone can afford an entire pack, it's too expensive,' the 21-year-old told AFP. Steep fines According to several smokers in Turkmenistan, a pack can cost between 50 and 170 manats ($14.20 to $48.50), while individual cigarettes cost between two and five manats. A pack is therefore around 11 percent of an average monthly salary, which was roughly 1,500 manats in 2018, according to the most recent official Turkmen statistics. Comparisons with other countries are complicated because of the double exchange rate in Turkmenistan — an official one controlled by the state and the real one which operates on the black market. In a hospital in Ashgabat, Soltan, a doctor, welcomed the government's 'active fight against tobacco'. 'We treat tobacco addiction. The health ministry has created centers where smokers can get free advice on quitting,' she said. The authorities rely on more coercive methods with a variety of smoking bans, import restrictions and fines that can reach 200 manats. 'After receiving several fines, I decided to stop definitively after the time I got caught smoking in my car in a public car park,' said Ilyas Byashimov, a 24-year-old entrepreneur. Public apologies The Berdymukhamedovs — Gurbanguly and his son Serdar — have ruled the country for almost 20 years with almost absolute power. After Serdar Berdymukhamedov called in 2023 for a 'no compromise' fight against smoking, around 20 people were shown on state television promising not to smoke water pipes or import tobacco illegally. There are also regular public burnings of contraband cigarettes, accompanied by shows of traditional Turkmen dancing and singing. With just a few months to go until the end of 2025, the authorities are not claiming victory in rooting out smoking. Contacted by AFP, the health ministry declined to reply — not surprising in a country where obtaining and verifying any official information is extremely hard. Smokers seemed doubtful about a total ban. — AFP
Kuwait Times
12-08-2025
- Kuwait Times
Sudan refugees face cholera outbreak
TAWILA, Sudan: In the cholera-stricken refugee camps of western Sudan, every second is infected by fear. Faster than a person can boil water over an open flame, the flies descend and everything is contaminated once more. Cholera is ripping through the camps of Tawila in Darfur, where hundreds of thousands of people have been left with nothing but the water they can boil, to serve as both disinfectant and medicine. 'We mix lemon in the water when we have it and drink it as medicine,' said Mona Ibrahim, who has been living for two months in a hastily-erected camp in Tawila. 'We have no other choice,' she told AFP, seated on the bare ground. Adam is one of nearly half a million people who sought shelter in and around Tawila, from the nearby besieged city of El-Fasher and the Zamzam displacement camp in April, following attacks by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), at war with Sudan's regular army since April 2023. The first cholera cases in Tawila were detected in early June in the village of Tabit, about 25 kilometers south, said Sylvain Penicaud, a project coordinator for French charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF). 'After two weeks, we started identifying cases directly in Tawila, particularly in the town's displacement camps,' he told AFP. In the past month, more than 1,500 cases have been treated in Tawila alone, he said, while the UN's children agency says around 300 of the town's children have contracted the disease since April. Across North Darfur state, more than 640,000 children under the age of five are at risk, according to UNICEF. By July 30, there were 2,140 infections and at least 80 deaths across Darfur, UN figures show. Cholera is a highly contagious bacterial infection that causes severe diarrhoea and spreads through contaminated water and food. Causing rapid dehydration, it can kill within hours if left untreated, yet it is preventable and usually easily treatable with oral rehydration solutions. More severe cases require intravenous fluids and antibiotics. Ibrahim Adam Mohamed Abdallah, UNICEF's executive director in Tawila, told AFP his team 'advises people to wash their hands with soap, clean the blankets and tarps provided to them and how to use clean water'. But in the makeshift shelters of Tawila, patched together from thin branches, scraps of plastic and bundles of straw, even those meager precautions are out of reach. Insects cluster on every barely washed bowl, buzzing over the scraps of already meager meals. Haloum Ahmed, who has been suffering from severe diarrhea for three days, said 'there are so many flies where we live'. Water is often fetched from nearby natural sources—often contaminated—or from one of the few remaining shallow, functional wells. It 'is extremely worrying,' said MSF's Penicaud, but 'those people have no (other) choice'. Sitting beside a heap of unwashed clothes on the dusty ground, Ibrahim said no one around 'has any soap'. 'We don't have toilets—the children relieve themselves in the open,' she added. 'We don't have food. We don't have pots. No blankets—nothing at all,' said Fatna Essa, another 50-year-old displaced woman in Tawila. The UN has repeatedly warned of food insecurity in Tawila, where aid has trickled in, but nowhere near enough to feed the hundreds of thousands who go hungry. - AFP
Kuwait Times
10-08-2025
- Kuwait Times
Malnutrition in Sudan's El-Fasher kills 63 in a week
PORT SUDAN: Malnutrition has killed 63 people, mostly women and children, in just one week in Sudan's besieged city of El-Fasher, a senior health official said Sunday, as fighting between the army and rival paramilitaries intensifies in the western region. The official from North Darfur's health ministry, who spoke to AFP on condition of anonymity, said the death toll only included those who managed to reach hospitals, adding that many families buried their dead without seeking medical help due to poor security conditions and a lack of transportation. Since May last year, El-Fasher, the capital of North Darfur, has been under siege by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which has been battling Sudan's regular army since April 2023. The city remains the last major Darfur urban center in army control, and has recently come under renewed attack by the RSF after the group withdrew from Sudan's capital Khartoum earlier this year. A major RSF offensive on the nearby Zamzam displacement camp in April forced tens of thousands of people to flee again—with many of them now sheltering inside El-Fasher. Community kitchens, once a lifeline, have largely shut down due to a lack of supplies. Some families are reported to be surviving on animal fodder or food waste. At the largest community kitchen in the city, around 1,700 people receive the traditional Sudanese dish aseeda—a porridge made from millet or sorghum flour—every morning, but portions have shrunk dramatically. 'Six months ago, we served two meals daily, but now, due to shortages and dry markets, only one meal is provided,' Magdi Youssef, one of the kitchen's managers, told AFP. He added a plate once shared by three people is now eaten by seven. Children and women arriving at the kitchen show clear signs of malnutrition, including swollen bellies and sunken eyes, Youssef said. According to UN figures, nearly 40 percent of children under five in El-Fasher are now acutely malnourished, with 11 percent suffering from severe acute malnutrition. — AFP Famine was declared a year ago in the displacement camps surrounding El-Fasher, and the UN estimated it would take hold in the city itself by last May. A lack of data has prevented an official famine declaration. The UN has repeatedly warned of the plight of an estimated one million people trapped in El-Fasher and its surrounding camps, who are virtually cut off from aid and basic services. The World Food Programme said this week that thousands of families in El-Fasher are 'at risk of starvation'. An attack on a UN humanitarian convoy heading towards the city in June killed five aid workers. The rainy season, which peaks in August, is further complicating efforts to reach the city. Roads are rapidly deteriorating, making aid deliveries difficult if not impossible. The war, now in its third year, has killed tens of thousands, displaced millions and created what the United Nations describes as the world's largest displacement and hunger crises. 'Those eating at the community kitchen are still hungry,' Youssef said. 'I see fear in the children's eyes because of food scarcity,' he added. A pediatrician at El-Fasher hospital reported a surge in critically malnourished children arriving at the facility. 'Most cases are severely malnourished and medical supplies to treat them are dangerously low,' she told AFP. In the nearby famine-stricken Abu Shouk camp, community leader Adam Essa told AFP he had just returned from burying five children. He said the child mortality rate in the camp ranges between five and seven deaths daily. Across Sudan, nearly 25 million people are suffering dire food insecurity. UNICEF's Sudan representative Sheldon Yett called the situation this week a 'looming catastrophe'. 'We are on the verge of irreversible damage to an entire generation of children.' – AFP
