Maternity attack in Kabul: "They came to kill the mothers"

Hajar Sarweri was about to give birth to his second child, Tuesday, May 12, around 10 a.m., when several armed men entered the work room, in the maternity unit of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), at at Dasht-e-Barchi hospital in Kabul. They shot her twice in the stomach, killing her instantly, as well as her unborn child.

Details come from the Washington Post. His journalists covered the funeral of Hajar Sarweri, which took place the next day, as is the tradition in Islam. "Her family buried her on the top of a hill, under an overcast sky, on the outskirts of the Afghan capital. The child was still in her womb," the article said.

"It was methodical "

In this "abject attack", as MSF calls it, a total of 24 people were killed and at least 20 injured by these armed individuals - the number of whom remains uncertain - who assaulted for more than four hours, "to shots and explosive devices, "said the NGO. 

"They entered the maternity rooms, shooting the women who were in their beds. It was methodical. The walls were riddled with bullet holes, there was blood on the floor of the rooms, vehicles burned and broken windows, "said Frédéric Bonnot, head of MSF programs in Afghanistan, in a press release dated May 14.

Among the dead were eleven women, three of whom were in the delivery room, about to give birth to their baby. There are also two young boys and an Afghan midwife who worked with MSF. Two babies were injured, including one shot in the leg. Among the survivors, a woman and her child, born during the attack. "The mother and baby are doing well," said MSF.

"A target symbol"

In a crisis cell two days after the tragedy, MSF was still trying on Thursday to understand what happened in her maternity hospital in Kabul. Babies who lost their mothers in the attack were placed with their relatives on Wednesday in a hospital in the west of the city. But the NGO is still trying to reunite families as well as to trace patients and staff. "We are still in a hurry," said France 24 press relations officer Assia Shihab.

The medical activities of the Dasht-e-Barchi maternity hospital are still suspended. With a capacity of 55 beds, the maternity unit which was targeted on May 12 has seen the birth of nearly 5,500 children since its opening in 2014 in this poor district of west Kabul, and has treated more than 500 infants.

"This is quite a symbol taken for target (...) The hospital was the most frequented in the district of Dasht-e-Barchi, largely inhabited by the Hazara minority, Shiite community of Afghanistan often targeted by the organization Islamic State (IS) ", specifies Sonia Ghezali, the correspondent of France 24 in Kabul.

Limited access to care, vulnerable women

But this attack exceeds anything that has been seen previously. "It is so shocking. We know this area has been the target of attacks in the past, but no one could have expected an attack on a maternity hospital. They came to kill the mothers ", adds Frédéric Bonnot.

Its closure, even temporary, therefore worries the NGO while "several maternities are closed at the moment due to the epidemic of Covid-19", specifies Assia Shihab. And this health situation only worsens the ordinary where access to care is particularly difficult in this politically unstable and economically dependent country.

For women, who are more pregnant, the supply of maternal health care is very limited, "even non-existent", in the country's provinces as in the capital, which has experienced a population explosion in recent years. The country has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the world, with 396 deaths per 100,000 births, according to WHO data in 2016. 

The peace process in jeopardy

Shocking for the entire international community, the brutality of the attack on motherhood is no less so for the Afghan authorities. Especially since a few hours later, a new bomb attack occurred during a funeral in the east of the country. Claimed by the Islamic State group, it left 32 dead and more than 133 injured.

The Taliban have not claimed responsibility for any of the two attacks, holding the Organization of the Islamic State and the Afghan Intelligence Service responsible. However, Afghan authorities associate the May 12 tragedies with the numerous offensives carried out in recent weeks by the insurgent group - more than 3,700, according to Afghan intelligence, since the signing of the American-Taliban agreement on February 29, 2020. .

The Afghan government and our international partners, have a responsibility to hold the Taliban and their sponsors accountable. The reason to pursue peace is to end this senseless violence. This is not peace, nor its beginnings.

On May 12, President Ashraf Ghani gave orders to resume "operations against the enemy". On Wednesday, when bereaved families bury their child child, the Taliban say they are ready for a counter-offensive. Passage of arms that calls into question an already uncertain peace process, in a country where the gift of life is now confused with the threat of death.

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