Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) honors the victims of the May 12 massacre of women and children at our maternity ward in Kabul’s Dasht-e-Barchi hospital. Among those killed were 15 mothers and an MSF midwife, Maryam Noorzad. The attackers also killed two young children and six other individuals who happened to be present at the time. More than 100 people found shelter in the safe rooms of the facility, including one woman who gave birth to a healthy baby in the midst of the terror attack.
Mothers, babies, and health staff were deliberately targeted. While the identities of the assailants remain unknown, this horrific crime appears to be part of a larger pattern of attacks targeting the ethnic Hazara community living in the area.