Afghan health system at risk of collapse, Doctors Without Borders says

Record ID: 1634359

  • Title: Afghan health system at risk of collapse, Doctors Without Borders says
  • Date: 30th August 2021
  • Summary: KABUL, AFGHANISTAN (RECENT - AUGUST 25, 2021) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF CROWDS OUTSIDE KABUL AIRPORT
  • Embargoed: 13th September 2021 05:08
  • Keywords: Afghanistan Doctors Without Borders EU IMF Islamist Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) Taliban World Bank collapse health system humanitarian aid insurgents militants
  • Location: KABUL, LASHKAR GAH, KUNDUZ, AFGHANISTAN / UNIDENTIFIED LOCATION
  • City: KABUL, LASHKAR GAH, KUNDUZ, AFGHANISTAN / UNIDENTIFIED LOCATION
  • Country: Afghanistan
  • Topics: Asia / Pacific,Conflicts/War/Peace
  • Reuters ID: LVA007ESGZC5J
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Afghanistan's healthcare system is at risk of collapse after foreign donors stopped providing aid to the country, a representative of Doctors Without Borders told Reuters on Sunday (August 29).
    Doctors Without Borders - known officially as Médecins Sans Frontières - have a longstanding presence in Afghanistan as well as other conflict zones around the world, where they operate on a basis of political neutrality. Their current initiatives in the country include a maternity facility in Khost province, a tuberculosis project in Kandahar, and a full hospital facility in Helmand province.
    "The old health system in Afghanistan was supported from (the) outside - foreign aid, mainly, the World Bank, the EU, and some of the donors," said Filipe Ribeiro, MSF Afghanistan country representative. "The World Bank, but also the IMF and some others, froze the funds for Afghanistan, and one of the great risks for the health system here is basically to collapse because of lack of support."
    A number of international funding channels for Afghan community initiatives have been suspended since the Taliban took over.
    Ribeiro also expressed concerns over the difficulty of bringing supplies into the country to continue MSF's efforts to providing healthcare.
    "For the time being, there are no customs, there is no administration, there is no way for us to get stuff in," Ribeiro said.
    Ribeiro added that Doctors Without Borders are committed to remain in Afghanistan, and had actively engaged with the Taliban for years in order to maintain their ability to do so.
    "They (the Taliban) actually ask us to stay. And they asked us to keep running our operations the way we were running them before. And so far we are not facing any difficulty," Ribeiro said. "The big question for us is, when are we going to be able to get (the) medical supply (supplies) in."
    (Production: Aleksander Solum)
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2021. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
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