MSF Press Release of 5 September 2013

MSF surgeon killed in Syria

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5 September 2013

Barcelona, 5 September 2013 – A Syrian surgeon working for the international medical organisation Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), Dr Muhammad Abyad, has been killed in northern Syria. His body was found on 3 September in Aleppo province. He was 28 years old.
MSF would like to express its sincere condolences to the family and friends of Dr Abyad, who was working in an MSF-run hospital in Aleppo province treating the victims of the conflict.
While the exact circumstances of Dr Abyad’s death remain unclear, MSF condemns the attack against a surgeon who was relentlessly working to alleviate a desperate humanitarian situation in the region while his own country was at war.
“His death is a terrible loss to his family, to the patients that he was treating, and to MSF,” says Joan Tubau, MSF’s general director. “We are outraged by this attack against a young and highly motivated surgeon who was working to save the lives of Syrians affected by the conflict.”
At such a tragic time, MSF would like to emphasise the obligation to ensure the protection of humanitarian workers. MSF is concerned that such attacks directly impact the ability of aid organisations to provide medical assistance.

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MSF teams made up of international and Syrian staff operate six hospitals and four health centres in the north of Syria. Between June 2012 and July 2013, MSF teams in Syria carried out more than 66,000 medical consultations and 3,400 surgical procedures and assisted 1,400 births. 

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I stayed at the apartment of the expatriate team who worked with this surgeon last night, before going off to my new assignment today.  They had just found out about this.  I offer my sincere condolenscences to his family.

Nearly Finished in Jordan

I am nearly finished with my 6 week stay in Jordan.  My replacement has arrived, and we are in the middle of our handover.  I leave during the very early morning Tuesday 4 September.  Although it is not so far, it is a 9 hour trip, including a very long layover between flights.

This mission has been great.  (OK, I know.  I say this every time.)  It is the first time I have worked on opening 2 big projects in 2 different countries in an emergency situation.  I have opened small projects in an emergency situation in the same time; but never in a country where the structure was not yet in place for emergencies.  Also, I love Africa, but the comfort level in the middle-east is much higher.  Amman is very comfortable.  On the other hand, as an emergency coordination team, we are currently 12 people living in two adjacent 3 bedroom apartments.  Do the numbers - let’s say that privacy is a little lacking.  We also routinely run out of water – these were meant to be single family apartments, not adult hippy communes, so the storage tanks are not proportioned accordingly.

In Turkey, everyone  with us enters on a 90 day tourist visa.  This visa cannot be extended, so I am going to replace a person whose 90 days are up.  And she is the one replacing me here.  I have worked with her before, and she is great.  I am very happy that she is replacing me, and I know that she is leaving me a situation there which is as clean as possible.  Her project has been in place for more than a year, so a lot has been done already.  I am leaving her with a lot to do still – we have just established our bank account but need to work on details, we are still negotiating with one hospital in which we will work, and there are lots of other pending tasks to tackle.   She is up to it.

I am going to Turkey at a time when our team is moving from one province to another.  That will entail a lot of work.  Also, upon arrival a taxi will whisk me away from the airport to go directly to a meeting attempting to register as a representative organization in the country.  I hope I don't fall asleep - that would be an embarassing introduction to the country.

I am excited that I will meet up with some other people with whom I worked previously.  The number of people who do more than 2 or 3 missions with our kind of organization is very small, but it makes up the core of our teams.  My replacement and I are joking that maybe when my 90 days is up in Turkey, we will switch again. I would rather go to Africa then, because winters in either Turkey or Jordan are on par with those of Europe or the United States.  I hate cold weather.  Anyway, I am on my second 1-year contract with the emergency department, so I am a slave – I go where I am told.  The sad part is that I like it!

Our work in Turkey is actually Syria – even more directly than here in Jordan, where we are focused on Syrian war refugees in both Jordan and Iraq.  I am really excited to go there now, with the threat of international intervention being the news topic of the day.  Our medical programs, which are already aimed at war injured, risk to change day by day.  We do good work today in this field, but we will have to stay reactive to the change in context to be of maximum assistance to a population in danger.  It will be really exciting.

Are you tired of me telling you that I love my job?  If so, you are jealous.  Tough titties.  Hehehehehe