Month: August 2021

On the eve of the withdrawal of US troops, the increasingly powerful Taliban began occupying important cities and districts in various provinces of Afghanistan. Especially during July and August, the Taliban were rapidly occupying the cities of Afghanistan. They captured Kabul on the 15th of August after capturing almost all the cities by the second week of August.

More than a week has passed since the Taliban takeover of Kabul after 20 years of their previous regime. There have been significant developments of the Taliban and the situation of Afghanistan in the past few weeks. So far, the Taliban seems to be different in their approach to the Afghans and to the world community than their previous tenure in Afghanistan.

When something completely unexpected happens, we ascribe it to providence. But when there are a series of such occurrences revolving around a single event, it’s but natural to suspect that something’s amiss and in absence of any rational explanation, conspiracy and coverup theories abound. The latest such issue that’s caught the world’s attention is the crisis in Afghanistan.

In the wake of intense fighting and the rapid transfer of power to the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (also known as the Taliban), people are facing widespread instability, mass displacement, and the disruption of basic services, including health care. Despite the challenges, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) teams continue to provide essential medical care across all five of our projects in Afghanistan—in Herat, Helmand, Kandahar, Khost, and Kunduz provinces. Here, two medical staff members working in Lashkar Gah (Helmand province) and Khost city describe the recent changes they have witnessed, and how they have affected patients and health care providers alike.

Names withheld to protect anonymity.
Lashkar Gah: “We are receiving over 700 patients a day in our emergency room”