Afghanistan: MSF closes maternity hospital in Kabul, attacked in May

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In Afghanistan, Médecins Sans Frontières announces the closure of the maternity hospital it supported in Kabul following the attack on May 12. Twenty-five people were killed, including 16 mothers, two children and a midwife. The attack by a commando of armed men, which has still not been claimed, had raised a shock wave in the country.

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With our regional correspondent , Sonia Ghezali

“  A necessary but painful decision. These are the words of MSF management . The NGO explains that, by its presence, it does not wish to make the patients and the Hazara community take risks . It is widely present in the district of Dasth-e-Bartchi, in the west of Kabul, where the maternity hospital attacked by armed men is located a month ago.

The Shiite minority is regularly targeted by the Afghan branch of the Islamic State group. The terrorist group is suspected of being the instigator after the Taliban denied any involvement.

MSF's maternity unit in Kabul looked after women whose pregnancies were at risk. It was an institution in the country which has a very high maternal mortality rate. More than 16,000 babies were born there in 2019.

Its closure is a new blow for the population and for the NGO. Seventy of its employees and patients have been killed since 2004 in Afghanistan. In 2015, the MSF hospital in Kunduz was destroyed by the American air force, killing 42 people.

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• Afghanistan
• Health and Medicine
• Humanitarian
• Women

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