The town of Qayyarah, some 70 km south of Mosul in the Ninewa governorate, lies on the west bank of the Tigris River. Before the Iraqi army retook the area at the end of August 2016 it was under the control of IS group for two and a half years. Close to Qayyarah, six camps now house up to 100,000 internally displaced people (IDPs).
Qayyarah General Hospital was partially destroyed in 2016. When MSF opened a new hospital in December 2016, it was the only functional health facility in the sub- district for a population of 300,000 people.