Kobanê Canton Health Council President Welat Omer stated that they lived in conditions where tens of people may get injured in one moment, and the canton’s most urgent need was a hospital.

233 civilians lost their lives and 270 people got injured during the massacre in Kobanê on June 25. Some of the wounded lost their lives because medical insufficiencies prevented them from receiving treatment. ISIS destroyed medical equipments and medicines during its occupation of the Doctors Without Borders hospital, which is currently inoperative. There is only one civilian and one military hospital in Kobanê where more than 80 thousand civilians lack medicines and medical equipments.

Kobanê Canton Health Council President Welat Omer spoke to ANF and stated that they lived in conditions where tens of people may get injured in a moment, and the canton’s most urgent need was a hospital. Omer said that they would like to ensure the return of wounded people who are in Turkey for medical purposes, but they do not have the necessary resources to treat these wounded people themselves.

Omer called on all health organizations and international institutions to show solidarity and send support so that Kobanê is prepared not only for regular conditions but also emergency situations where tens of people could need treatment simultaneously.

What kind of medicine-related problems did you experience on June 25 when gangs carried out a massacre in Kobanê?

More than 80 wounded civilians from nearby villages came to our hospital on June 25 when the gangs carried out a massacre in Kobanê. We treated some of these civilians in our military hospital due to the technical and personnel limitations we have here. Our military hospital often treats civilians because of this problem.

Soon after the civilians from villages, people from the city center who were injured came to our hospital. We did not have enough ambulances to bring in all injured civilians at once, but we manage to bring 273 wounded people to our hospital on June 25. We had to send some of these injured civilians to Turkey due to our resource and personnel limitations. Some of the injured people we admitted to the hospital had serious complications and died after we failed to carry out risky operations due to the lack of resources. 125 of the 273 that we admitted to the hospital were in critical condition and ten of these wounded people lost their lives here. Most of the civilians in critical condition were sent to Turkey through the corridor we opened up during the clashes in Kobanê city center.

Can you inform us about the current condition of the wounded civilians in Kobanê and Turkey?

The wounded civilians we sent to Turkey receive treatment in the hospitals in Suruç, Urfa and Amed. Most of them were discharged from their hospitals but 116 civilians continue to receive treatment. We are in contact with the doctors over there and the civilians who received treatment would like to return to Kobanê. Some have already begun to return and we expect more to come in the near future. Of course, we need to identify how many civilians we can treat at once before all wounded civilians return since we have limited resources. Overall, the injured civilians are in good condition.

After the gangs’ occupation, the Doctors Without Borders Hospital in Kobanê is inoperable. How will this effect health services?

We only have one civilian hospital (Emel Hospital) that currently operates in Kobanê. We also have a military hospital (Şehit Zozan Hospital). The Miştenur hospital (DWB hospital) had not begun to operate at the time of the attack but there were a lot of medical equipments and medicines stored there. ISIS destroyed all of these resources during its occupation of the hospital, which put us in a difficult situation. We had to perform over our capacity in order to treat all injured civilians.

Kurdish Red Crescent (Hevya Sor) contributes to your efforts…

Hevya Sor took the responsibility of treating many civilians after the destruction of Miştenur Hospital. But both Hevya Sor and we need more support, especially medical equipments and medicine.

What can you say about the need for a hospital in Kobanê?

We urgently need a hospital in Kobanê, even under normal conditions. However, we are in a time of war and the need for hospital here became more urgent.

What are the medicines you urgently need?

Antibiotics, serum, Volivin (blood serum), and disinfectants are what we need the most in times of war. We live in conditions where tens of people may get injured in a moment and we do not have enough medicine. The destruction of Miştenur Hospital augmented this problem further more, and we need help on this issue.

Tens of thousands of civilians returned to Kobanê after the liberation of the town. Is the aid you received after the massacre adequate?

The aid we received is valuable and important, but it becomes inadequate as more and more civilians return to the town. Currently, there are more than 80 thousand civilians in the town center and the villages nearby are fully populated. The recent massacre reminded us that we should be prepared for emergent situations where tens of civilians may need medical treatment simultaneously. We therefore call on all health organizations and international institutions to show solidarity and send support so that Kobanê is prepared not only for regular conditions but also emergency situations. We saw that ISIS targets civilians and we need support in order to be fully prepared for such massacres.