Afghan mothers in the Dasht-e-Barchi area of Kabul on Saturday appealed to Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) to resume its health activities in the vicinity, days after the MSF in a statement announced that it had decided to end activities and withdraw from Dasht-e-Barchi maternity hospital following the attack on the hospital on May 12.
The women said that pregnant women will lose their lives before reaching other hospitals in the city due to certain problems such as poverty and the hardship of traveling long distances.
MSF said that the decision was made after the attack on the maternity ward on May 12, in which 24 were killed and 16 others were wounded.
“Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has announced our decision to end activities and withdraw from Dasht-e-Barchi in Kabul, Afghanistan, following the brutal attack on our maternity wing on May 12, in which 16 mothers were systematically shot dead. An MSF midwife, two children aged 7 and 8, and six other people present at the time of the attack were also killed,” said MSF.
“They (mothers) can’t go to private hospitals, they are not able to reach government hospitals because of traffic and rush, these issues put their lives and the lives of their babies at risk,” said Habiba Hussaini, an Afghan mother in Kabul.
“Doctors of Médecins Sans Frontières should resume their work so that the children are not deprived of their rights,” said Muzhda, a resident in Kabul.
“I came here to the hospital to request that the MSF doctors resume their work,” said Setayash, a resident in Kabul.
Over the past few weeks, local elders in Dahst-e-Barchi held several meetings with MSF to try and convince the body to continue its operation in the area.
“We discussed our recommendations and the problems of the people with them, but we are very disappointed, because our friends at MSF have decided to halt activities,,” said Sakhidad Bashardost, a local elder in Dasht-e-Barchi.
According to doctors, when the MSF program was operating there were 50 births taking place at the hospital daily and 300 doctors and health workers were serving the patients. But now only, 60 government doctors are serving at the hospital.
“20 major hospitals are in Kabul, none exist here (Dasht-e-Barchi). This hospital provided the best health services in the past six years. If health activities are halted here, there is a possibility that we will lose 25 mothers daily,” said Abdul Ahmad Malikyar, the PD13 chief.
