Afghanistan

As the war in Afghanistan escalated in 2009, Afghan civilians endured increasing levels of violence throughout the country. The insecurity has damaged an already beleaguered health-care system, leaving only a few poorly functioning hospitals and clinics in provincial capitals. Afghans in need of any health care must now make an impossible choice: risk traveling hundreds of miles through a war zone to seek a medical care or allow a condition to worsen until it becomes life-threatening only to arrive at a health structure where services are greatly diminished.

MSF has started to work again in Afghanistan after an absence of five years. Here, MSF General Director Christopher Stokes explains why it is crucial for MSF to base its activities in the country on three pillars: providing free medical care, not accepting funds from governments, and keeping all weapons out of the hospitals.

By 11:30am most patients in Ahmed Shah Baba hospital, in eastern Kabul, have been seen. They arrive early in the morning, receive their consultations and treatment, and return home before the hottest part of the day begins. Just before the staff take their lunch break, there is one patient left in the emergency room and two pregnant women in the maternity ward. Only the vaccination room and its waiting area are still bustling with women in bright blue burkas and their young children. The register shows that the staff have already vaccinated 150 children today.

After leaving Afghanistan five years ago, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has started working again in the country's capital, Kabul. The organization’s return this year was motivated by indications that the overall situation for Afghans was getting worse rather than better. Insecurity in Afghanistan has increased, and access to health services is problematic for many Afghans.

The Photographer: Into War-Torn Afghanistan with Doctors Without Borders is a book that uses photographs, illustrations and text to tell the powerful story of clandestine operations Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) undertook to assist Afghan people after the 1979 Soviet invasion.

MSNBC's Rachel Maddow interviews illustrator Emmanuel Guibert and former Head of Mission in Afghanistan for Doctors Without Borders Juliette Fournot.

"There is no fighting in this book. No great warriors are exalted. The story is about those who live on the fringes of war and care for its human detritus. By the end of the book the image or picture of a weapon is distasteful. And if you can achieve this, you have gone a long way to imparting the truth about warfare."

A new book portrays the journey one photographer took with the group into war-torn Afghanistan. Listen to The World's Clarck Boyd on The Photographer.

New York, September 26, 2006 — After more than two years since five staff members of the international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) were murdered in Afghanistan, no one has been convicted and the prime suspect in the crime has just been released before completion of the judicial process.

Brussels, September 8, 2006 — During the spring of 2004, five Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) staff members were killed as they returned to their base after working at a rural health clinic in northern Afghanistan.

Brussels, May 11, 2005 – On the day Hamid Karzai, H.E. President of Afghanistan, visits Belgium, the international medical aid organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) renews its call for the Afghan government to fully investigate the killing of five MSF aid workers in Afghanistan in June 2004.

Dr. Rowan Gillies
President, MSF International Council
Geneva

Transcript of Press Conference held in Kabul, Afghanistan.

Kabul, 28 July 2004 - With a deep feeling of sadness and anger, the international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) announces today the closure of all medical programs in Afghanistan. MSF is taking this decision in the aftermath of the killing of five MSF aid workers in a deliberate attack on June 2, 2004, when a clearly marked MSF vehicle was ambushed in the northwestern province of Badghis. Five of our colleagues were mercilessly shot in the attack. This targeted killing of five of its aid workers is unprecedented in the history of MSF, which has been delivering medical humanitarian assistance in some of the most violent conflicts around the world over the last 30 years.

On the evening of Saturday, June 19, MSF held a vigil in front of the Ghandi statue in Union Square Park, Manhattan, for Hélène de Beir, Egil Tynaes, Pim Kwint, Besmillah, and Fasil Ahmad, who were killed in a brutal attack in Afghanistan on June 2.

Kabul, June 13, 2004 - Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) strongly rejects allegations that the organization works for the interests of the US or any other governments, as was quoted in BBC and AFP reports. Such allegations are without foundation and show a complete disregard for MSF's medical work on behalf of people in need in Afghanistan over the last 25 years. They further jeopardize the possibilities to provide humanitarian assistance to the population.

In Memoriam to five Doctors Without Borders/Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) aid workers (three international and two Afghan workers) who were killed in an incident in the Badghis region in Afghanistan.

Kabul/Amsterdam, June 3, 2004 - It is with great sadness that we confirm that five Doctors Without Borders/Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) staff were killed yesterday while traveling on the road between Khairkhana and Qala-I-Naw in Badghis province.

Kabul/Amsterdam, June 2, 2004 - This afternoon five Doctors Without Borders/Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) aid workers (three international and two Afghan workers) were killed in an incident in the Badghis region in Afghanistan. No details of how the incident occurred are known. The victims have been transported to the nearest MSF compound in Khairkhana. The killed international MSF workers are a Belgian woman and a Dutch and Norwegian man. The Belgian woman worked as project coordinator, the Dutch man as logistician, and the Norwegian man as doctor. The two Afghan workers, both male, worked as driver and translator.

Joy O'Hazy, MD, is currently with MSF in northeast Iran, where she provides medical care to Afghan refugees. Here she describes running a mobile clinic that sees up to 4,000 patients a month.

Diderik van Halsema, Project Coordinator in Kandahar, Afghanistan was forced to evacuate his team from southern Afghanistan in April, 2003, when increasing violence against foreigners made it impossible to stay.

by Michelle Kelly and Morten Rostrup

MSF has been the leading aid organization in Jalozai Camp since November 2000, providing basic health care, water, and nutritional assistance.

Brice de le Vingne had been working in Afghanistan for three weeks as an MSF field coordinator when he had to evacuate from Mazar-i-Sharif a few days after the September 11 attacks in the United States.

Bearing witness to injustice and abuse has been a fundamental component of the mission of MSF's since the organization's founding in 1971. But how do we decide when and how to raise our voices?