Afghanistan

Analysing the unthinkable – one year after the Dasht-e-Barchi attack in Afghanistan

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On 12 May 2020, the maternity ward of the Dasht-e-Barchi hospital in Kabul, Afghanistan, was attacked. Twenty-four people were killed according to official sources. On 15 June, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF)/Doctors Without Borders announced the decision to withdraw from the hospital. In parallel, we carried out an internal fact-finding exercise. Dr Isabelle Defourny, MSF director of operations, explains … Read more

Afghanistan: Keeping an eye on COVID-19 cases in Herat

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Due to an increase in the number of people with severe COVID-19 in Herat, western Afghanistan, the Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) COVID-19 treatment centre in Gazer Ga reopened on 2 December 2020. The centre reopened to support the Ministry of Public Health’s COVID-19 referral structure in Shaidayee hospital with the increase of cases; currently, the average … Read more

Afghanistan: Patients face persistent insecurity amid “peace process”

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The year 2020 has been considered a historic one for Afghanistan. In February, 20 years since the US-led invasion, the US signed a deal with the Islamic Emirate – otherwise known as the Taliban – to pave the way for a conditions-based withdrawal of US troops. In September, intra-Afghan talks between the Taliban and the Afghan … Read more

Afghanistan: MSF withdraws from Dasht-e-Barchi following attack on patients and staff

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Kabul – Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has announced today its decision to end activities and withdraw from Dasht-e-Barchi in Kabul, following the brutal attack of 12 May in which 16 mothers were systematically shot dead. An MSF midwife working for the organisation, two children aged 7 and 8 and six other people present … Read more

Afghanistan: “As midwives in Afghanistan, we are the silent leaders of our country.”

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Zahra Koochizad is the MSF midwife supervisor in the MSF maternity wing of Dasht-e-Barchi hospital in Kabul, Afghanistan. She was working on the maternity ward on 12 May 2020, the day of an attack by unknown assailants who killed 15 mothers and an MSF midwife. Here she explains why midwives in Afghanistan are so important, calling them … Read more

Afghanistan: Fifteen mothers confirmed killed in Kabul maternity wing attack

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In the three weeks since a vicious attack on the Médecins Sans Frontiéres (MSF)-run maternity wing at Dasht-e-Barchi hospital in Kabul, Afghanistan, assessments have revealed that 15 mothers were killed in the hospital. Five of these women were in labour and were minutes, or at most hours, from giving birth to their babies. An MSF midwife, Maryam Noorzad, … Read more

Afghanistan: “They came to kill the mothers” in Kabul maternity hospital attack

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In the days following the attack on the Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF)-supported Dasht-e-Barchi hospital in Kabul, Afghanistan, it has become clear that what happened on 12 May was a deliberate assault on a maternity hospital with the purpose of killing mothers in cold blood. “I went back the day after the attack and what I saw in the … Read more

Afghanistan: Revolting attack on maternity ward kills pregnant women and babies

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KABUL – Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is devastated after yesterday’s sickening attack on pregnant women, mothers and their babies at our maternity ward in Dasht-e-Barchi hospital in Kabul, Afghanistan. While pregnant women and babies, in one of life’s most vulnerable states, were seeking healthcare, an unknown number of attackers stormed the maternity ward through … Read more