After the attack on the MSF hospital in Kunduz killed 22 people, ‘no young Afghan doctor is going to risk their life and travel to the provinces to work’
As Médecins sans Frontières pulls its remaining staff from Kunduz following a suspected US airstrike on one of its hospitals, Afghans in the US worry that in areas threatened by the Taliban, the incident will result in critical medical aid and services being cut off.
“They are there for the right reason, which is to help people,” said Dean Sherzai, an Afghan-American doctor who works for Cedars-Sinai hospital in Los Angeles.
“They are the ones that have the management and infrastructure. They are the ones that bring small labs and capable doctors to far-out locations where children still die on a daily basis.”
The MSF hospital in Kunduz came under bombardment early on Saturday morning. Twenty-two people were killed, MSF said, including 12 hospital staff and three children. Thirty-seven others were injured.
In statements, MSF officials called the attack a war crime and said the organisation could not “accept that this horrific loss of life will simply be dismissed as ‘collateral damage’.”
The Afghan president, Ashraf Ghani, president Barack Obama and the defense secretary, Ash Carter, all promised full investigations into the strike, which took place five days after Taliban fighters took Kunduz. he city was then the scene of heavy fighting between the Taliban and Afghan troops backed by international advisers.
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http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/oct/05/afghans-in-us-fear-kunduz-hospital-airstrike-will-wipe-out-key-medical-services