Carlos Palma: Hidden and Insane in Aleppo

In January 2013, after weeks of heavy bombing and fighting in Aleppo, the Ibn Khaldun psychiatric hospital was overtaken by troops loyal to President Bashar Al Assad. The hospital was the only existing institution of its kind in the city of Aleppo with its 3.2 million inhabitants and the takeover had prompted fears of mass executions of the mentally ill and residents of the hospital.

Moments before losing control of this vital part of Aleppo during a daring night raid, FSA commander Haji Abu Mohamad L´Azizi rescued the 240 mentally ill residents from the hospital and moved them to a hidden and safer location, which will remain secret due to fears of further bombing. Fifty of the hospital patients were lost in the confusion during the night rescue. 

In the hidden location the patients are being managed by so called “Islamic police” with powers to reward, help and punish all those who break the Islamic Law. In the new Mental House the set up has only 100 beds with 190 patients. The remaining 90 mentally ill patients, resting without beds, are left to sleep on the floor. The three staff members have no medical or psychiatric training at all as they are all “simply” members of the “Islamic Police”. A doctor, a local General practitioner, visits the mental house set up once a week but there are absolutely no medicine to be prescribed or medication for the clinically insane. 

During the cold winter in Aleppo temperatures drop sometimes to -7C at night, without any electricity or heating the mentally ill patients sleep together to keep warm. 

“In the reality of war, the families of those who are here cannot be of much help” says Abu Mohamad, the current “director” of the mental institution. After more then two years of war, and, according to the UN, with more then 65.000 dead, Syrians, and Aleppo residents are struggling daily to cover their bread, and other basic needs. In the hard winter of northern Syria, the displaced and local residents are struggling for survival. The Hidden and Insane, can not rely on them for help. A vacuum clearly occupied by the extremist Islamic religion of the Jabat Al Nusra Front, which supports the Islamic Police.